The United States airlifted about 1,200 people from Kabul on Sunday, the White House said on Monday, as the massive evacuation from Afghanistan enters its final day.

The final U.S. departure from Kabul airport is underway and "core diplomatic staff" have departed, a U.S. official who left Kabul earlier on Monday told Reuters.

A second official confirmed that the bulk of diplomats had pulled out. The officials did not say whether they included top envoy Ross Wilson, expected to be among the last to leave.

Turkey cannot take on the burden of housing refugees from Afghanistan, the country's foreign minister has said – as the European Union's interior minister plans to release a statement saying the bloc will prevent an increase in migration into the EU. 

Turkey currently houses 300,000 Afghan refugees and 3.7 million Syrians after a deal between it and the EU in 2016 allowed Turkey to become a host for migrants in exchange for billions of dollars for refugee projects. 

"We have sufficiently carried out our moral and humanitarian responsibilities regarding migration," said Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during a joint press conference with his German counterpart.

"It is out of the question for us to take an additional refugee burden."

According to an estimate by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, around half a million Afghan citizens could leave the country by the end of the year because of the recent Taliban takeover.

The organization asked Afghanistan's neighboring countries to keep their borders open so people could leave Afghanistan safely.

And both Greece and Turkey have reinforced their own borders in anticipation of an increase in people trying to cross into Europe, with Greece constructing a 40km fence and a surveillance system. 

The European Union's interior ministers are also preparing to release a statement about the bloc's response to a possible influx of migration, according to a draft seen by Reuters, dated August 28.

"The EU and its member states stand determined to act jointly to prevent the recurrence of uncontrolled large-scale illegal migration movements faced in the past, by preparing a coordinated and orderly response," it said.

The document did not specify what the EU's response would be.

"The EU should also strengthen the support to the countries in Afghanistan's immediate neighborhood to ensure those in need receive adequate protection primarily in the region," it added.

The ministers will meet for an emergency meeting on Tuesday.

Those left behind 

Several European countries are negotiating with the Taliban to make sure people eligible for resettlement will be able to leave Afghanistan after the U.S. pulls out on August 31.

For example, there are reportedly between 800 and more than 1,000 Afghan citizens eligible for resettlement in the UK still in the country.

Germany, France and the UK are planning to propose creating a safe zone around Kabul's airport at an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Monday so that people will still be able to leave the country.

The Taliban has reportedly promised 100 countries that their nationals and Afghan citizens with valid travel documents will be able to leave Afghanistan.

The U.S. is also investigating if civilians were killed in an airstrike against a car reportedly carrying explosives to Kabul's airport, which it is guarding until it pulls out on August 31.

The airport is on high alert after an attack by the so-called Islamic State (ISIL) killed scores of people trying to leave the country last week.

But according to CNN, a family, including six children, were killed in the strike. Local media also reported the airstrike had killed civilians.

ISIL has claimed responsibility for firing six rockets at Kabul international airport on Monday.

The U.S. earlier said its anti-missile defenses have intercepted as many as five rockets fired at the airport.

European Union interior ministers will say on Tuesday that they are determined to act to prevent more "uncontrolled large-scale illegal migration movements" from Afghanistan, Reuters reported on Monday citing a draft statement.

Ministers will gather for an emergency meeting on Tuesday in Brussels to discuss the fallout from the Afghanistan crisis.

A loud explosion has been heard on the road leading to Kabul airport in the Afghan capital, TOLO News reported on Monday, adding that no further information was yet available. 

Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is in Afghanistan's Kandahar and has met with top Taliban figures to discuss the formation of the future political system, Ariana news reported, citing sources.

Previously, two Taliban spokespersons revealed that Akhundzada was in Kandahar and due to make a public appearance. He has never appeared publicly before and his whereabouts have remained largely unknown.

U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the rocket attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday and was informed that operations at the airport were not interrupted, the White House has said in a statement.

"The President was informed that operations continue uninterrupted at HKIA, and has reconfirmed his order that commanders redouble their efforts to prioritize doing whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground."

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has condemned U.S. air strikes in Kabul, saying it's illegal to carry out "arbitrary attacks" in other countries.

"We condemn such attacks because it is illegal to carry out arbitrary attacks in other countries. If there was any potential threat, it should have been reported to us, not an arbitrary attack that has resulted in civilian casualties," Mujahid told CGTN in a written response to a question about the air strikes.

"Reports are that the Americans have launched a drone strike near Kabul airport on a car suspected to be carrying ISIS suicide bomber preparing to attack the airport. They have also launched drone attacks on a house in Kabul claiming to be ISIS safehouse, killing seven civilians," he added.

The U.S. Central Command said on Sunday that the U.S. military forces carried out a "self-defense" airstrike in Kabul against a suspected ISIS-K vehicle, which could pose an imminent threat to the airport.

As many as five rockets were fired at Kabul's international airport but were intercepted by a missile defense system, a U.S. official told Reuters, as the U.S. nears the complete withdrawal of its troops from the city.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the rockets were fired early Monday morning, though it was unclear if all were brought down by the defense system.

China Media Group's correspondent Zmaryalai Abasin confirmed with eyewitnesses that the rockets were fired from a car in the Khair Khaneh area near the airport.

Initial reports did not indicate any U.S. casualties, but that information could change, the U.S. official said.

Earlier on Sunday, American forces launched a drone strike in Kabul targeting a suicide bomber in a vehicle who was aiming to attack the airport.

There is increasing concern that ISIS militants will launch further attacks on the airport as U.S. troops hurry to evacuate remaining American citizens and at-risk Afghans, before completing their own withdrawal by August 31.

(With input from Reuters)

(Cover: A view from the site after a rocket reportedly hit a residential area near Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 29, 2021. /CFP )

Eyewitnesses in Kabul said some casualties of Thursday's airport attack were victims of gunfire by foreign forces, reported CMG reporter Obaidullah Musaferzada from Kabul.

"I was not injured by the explosion. American soldiers shot at us," said one of the injured.

"I don't remember much of what happened. It wasn't a lot of casualties (caused by the explosion). It was U.S. soldiers shooting and using tear gas that caused a lot of casualties," he told CMG reporter. 

U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday attended a ceremony at a military base in his home state of Delaware where the remains of 13 troops killed in Afghanistan last week were returned to the U.S. soil.

Biden was joined at Dover Air Force Base by first lady Jill Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley and other senior military officials. 

The president and first lady met privately with the families of the fallen before flag-draped cases carrying 11 service members' remains were loaded into vans. The sounds of crying could be heard and one woman collapsed and was taken to an ambulance. 

The remains of two other fallen U.S. service members were being brought home privately at the request of their families. 

The 13 U.S. troops were killed in a suicide bombing attack near the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul last week as U.S. forces were working to evacuate Americans and allies from Afghanistan.

"The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others," Biden said in a statement Saturday. "Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far."

The White House said on Saturday that around 111,900 people had left Afghanistan since August 14. The U.S. pullout from Afghanistan is set to complete by August 31.

(With input from agencies) 

U.S. military forces on Sunday said they are assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties after an airstrike on a vehicle in Kabul, in which they eliminated an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamad Karzai International Airport.

"We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today," said Captain Bill Urban, spokesperson for U.S. Central Command in a statement. 

"We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties," read the statement.

Multiple members from a family, including children were killed in the U.S strike in Kabul, reported CNN earlier.

The Taliban will allow all foreign nationals and Afghan citizens with travel authorization from another country to leave Afghanistan, according to a joint statement issued by Britain, the United States and other countries.

"We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country," they said in the statement.

The statement said the countries, which also included Australia, Japan, France, Spain and many others, would continue to issue travel documents to designated Afghans.

Taliban forces cordoned off Kabul's airport to most Afghans, as the majority of NATO nations flew their troops out of Afghanistan Saturday after twenty years in the country.  

The U.S. is continuing with its airlifts ahead of the Tuesday deadline for withdrawal.  

The U.S. State Department released a statement Sunday saying that it will hold the Taliban to their public commitments to allow people to leave Afghanistan after August 31. 

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said there are still about 250 self-identified Americans still in Afghanistan who are either undecided about leaving the country or do not plan to evacuate.

A Taliban spokesperson on Sunday told CNN it condemns a U.S. drone strike against a vehicle with an alleged ISIS-K suicide bomber in Kabul, saying the move violates Afghanistan's sovereignty.  

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U.S. Central Command said on Sunday that U.S. military forces carried out an airstrike in Kabul against a suspected ISIS-K vehicle, which could pose an imminent threat to the airport.

"U.S. military forces conducted a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS threat" to Hamid Karzai International airport, U.S. Central Command Spokesman Bill Urban said in a statement, referring to a local affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

"We are confident we successfully hit the target. Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material," Urban said.

"We are assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time. We remain vigilant for potential future threats," said the spokesman.

Read more:

Taliban 'ready to take over' as Western evacuation deadline approaches

The airstrike came after U.S. President Joe Biden warned on Saturday that another terror attack against Kabul airport could be "highly likely in the next 24-36 hours."

It was the second U.S. military strike in Afghanistan since a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans. ISIS-K had claimed responsibility for the attack.

In retaliation for the deadly attack, the U.S. military on Friday launched a drone strike against the terror group in Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan, which killed two "high-profile" members and wounded another, according to the Pentagon.

The United States has been scrambling to evacuate Americans and its Afghan partners from the country since the Taliban retook Kabul on August 15. The White House said on Saturday that around 111,900 people had left Afghanistan since August 14.

The U.S. and its allies are winding up their operations to airlift civilians, diplomats and troops out of Afghanistan. Dozens of planes, including military planes, took off from the airport since late Saturday as the August 31 deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal is approaching.

(With input from Xinhua, AFP)

Only 300 American citizens still in Afghanistan are seeking to leave the country, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday.

"We are down to a population of 300 or fewer Americans who are still on the ground there, and we are working actively in these hours and these days to get those folks out," he told ABC. 

Some Americans, Blinken said, had chosen to stay beyond the August 31 deadline set to complete the evacuation, but "they are not going to be stuck in Afghanistan" and the U.S. has "a mechanism to get them out."

(With input from AFP)

The United States carried out a military strike in Kabul targeting a possible suicide car bomb that was aiming to attack the airport on Sunday, Reuters reported citing two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The officials told Reuters that they were citing initial information and cautioned it could change.

The U.S. strike report came after reports a residential area near Kabul airport was hit by a rocket. It's not immediately clear if the incidents are separate or connected, due to scarce information.

Two people were killed and three were injured after a shell fell on a house near Kabul airport, local media said.

A band of veteran Afghan leaders, including two regional strongmen, are angling for talks with the Taliban and plan to meet within weeks to form a new front for holding negotiations on the country's next government, a member of a group said.

Khalid Noor, son of Atta Mohammad Noor, the once-powerful governor of northern Afghanistan's Balkh province, said the group comprised of veteran ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum and others opposed to the Taliban's takeover.

"We prefer to negotiate collectively, because it is not that the problem of Afghanistan will be solved just by one of us," Noor, 27, told Reuters in an interview from an undisclosed location.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which operated in Afghanistan under a UN mandate had troops from 51 countries. At its height there were 130,000 soldiers deployed.

The US had the biggest military presence in Afghanistan so it's unsurprising that it has carried out by far the greatest number of evacuations.

However, many other countries, from Ireland to Poland and Qatar have been involved in evacuating their citizens and Afghans who worked with ISAF or are considered at risk under Taliban rule.

These are are latest figures for evacuations, as collated by news agency Reuters on Sunday August 29.

UNITED STATES

The U.S. military will continue evacuating people from Kabul airport until Aug. 31 if needed, but will prioritize the removal of U.S. troops and military equipment on the last couple of days, the Pentagon has said.

Washington has evacuated 5,400 U.S. citizens since Aug. 14, according to the U.S. government.

There were still about 350 U.S. citizens in Afghanistan trying to leave the country, a State Department spokesman said.

BRITAIN

Britain's last military flight left Kabul late on Saturday after evacuating more than 15,000 people in the two weeks since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the defense ministry said.

CANADA

Canadian forces in Kabul ended evacuation efforts for their citizens and Afghans on Thursday, acting chief of the defense staff General Wayne Eyre said.

He said Canada had evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of about 3,700 Canadian and Afghan citizens.

GERMANY

Germany ended evacuation flights on Thursday. The German military has evacuated 5,347 people, including more than 4,100 Afghans.

Germany previously said it had identified 10,000 people who needed to be evacuated, including Afghan local staff, journalists and human rights activists. About 300 German citizens remain in Afghanistan, a spokesman for the foreign office in Berlin said on Friday.

FRANCE

The French Defense Ministry said on Friday it had finished its evacuation effort from Afghanistan. During the operation, nearly 3,000 people, including more than 2,600 Afghans, had been brought to France.

ITALY

Italy evacuated 5,011 people, including 4,890 Afghan nationals, among them 1,301 women and 1,453 children, a defense ministry statement said. The last evacuation flight left on Friday.

SWEDEN

Sweden has ended its evacuation mission in Kabul, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Friday. She said that a total of 1,100 people had been evacuated, including all locally employed embassy staff and their families.

BELGIUM

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Thursday Belgium had ended its evacuation operations. Just over 1,400 people were evacuated, with the last flight arriving in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad on Wednesday night, he said.

IRELAND

Ireland's foreign ministry said that it had evacuated 36 Irish citizens after the completion of an emergency consular mission on Thursday.

It said it was now aware of approximately 60 Irish citizens and family members plus a further 15 Afghan citizens with Irish residency who are still in the country and have requested assistance, far more than they had initially estimated.

POLAND

Poland has evacuated about 900 people from Afghanistan, including about 300 women and 300 children, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday.

HUNGARY

Hungary has ended evacuations in Afghanistan after airlifting 540 people, including Hungarian citizens and Afghans and their families who worked for Hungarian forces previously, Defense Minister Tibor Benko said on Thursday.

DENMARK

Denmark made its last evacuation flight out of Kabul on Wednesday with the remaining diplomatic staff and military personnel, according to its defense ministry.

Denmark has airlifted about 1,000 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, including diplomatic staff, their families, former interpreters, Danish citizens as well as people from allied countries, the ministry said.

UKRAINE

Ukraine has evacuated of all of its citizens who wanted to leave, the president's chief of staff said on Saturday.

In all, it has flown out more than 600 people including foreign journalists, rights activists, women and children, Andriy Yermak said.

AUSTRIA

Austria is not operating its own flights and is relying on Germany and other countries to help with its evacuation. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told national broadcaster ORF on Wednesday 89 people with Austrian citizenship or residency had been airlifted out, while another two to three dozen people were still in Afghanistan.

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland, which is relying on Germany and the United States to help with its evacuation efforts via Tashkent, has got 292 people out of Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said on Tuesday. There were still 15 Swiss citizens in Afghanistan, but no more Swiss evacuation flights were planned.

THE NETHERLANDS

The Dutch government said on Thursday it had evacuated 2,500 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 15, with about 1,600 of them brought to the Netherlands. The Dutch ambassador left on the final flight on Thursday. The Dutch have no diplomatic presence left in the country.

SPAIN

Spain has concluded its evacuation of personnel from Afghanistan, the government said.

Two military planes carrying the last 81 Spaniards out of Kabul arrived in Dubai early on Friday, a government statement said. The planes were also carrying four Portuguese soldiers and 83 Afghans who had worked with NATO countries.

Over the course of its rescue mission Spain evacuated 1,898 Afghans who had worked with Western countries, the United Nations or the European Union.

TURKEY

Turkey has evacuated all troops and civilians from Afghanistan aside from a small "technical group" left behind, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

Turkey has evacuated at least 1,400 people from Afghanistan, including about 1,000 Turkish citizens, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier this week.

QATAR

Qatar said on Thursday it had helped evacuate more than 40,000 people to Doha and "evacuation efforts will continue in the coming days in consultation with international partners".

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The UAE said on Thursday it had helped evacuate 36,500 people to date, including 8,500 coming to the UAE via its national carriers or airports.

INDIA

India has airlifted 565 people from Afghanistan, most of them embassy personnel and citizens living there but also dozens of Afghans including Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, a government official said.

AUSTRALIA

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday that Australia had evacuated 4,100 people, including over 3,200 citizens and Afghans with Australian visas, over nine days, with the last planned flight leaving before the airport attack. The other evacuees were from coalition partners.

Morrison acknowledged some Australian visa holders remained in Afghanistan though he did not know exact numbers.

Australia is committed to bringing at least 3,000 more people out over coming months as part of a humanitarian programme, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said.

NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand's Defence Force ran three flights out of Kabul, and the last planned flight had left before the attack, a government statement said.

No NZDF personnel were in Kabul at the time of the explosions and no New Zealand evacuees were left within Kabul airport. According to preliminary numbers, at least 276 New Zealand nationals and permanent residents, their families and other visa holders were evacuated, it said. (Compiled by Reuters staff Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Alex Richardson, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Ana Nicolaci da Costa, Nick Macfie, Frances Kerry and Andrew Heavens)

Cover picture: U.S. Marine checks a woman as she goes through the Evacuation Control Center (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 28, 2021. U.S. Marine Corps/Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/Handout via 

An explosion was heard in Kabul on Sunday, a China Media Group correspondent in the city has confirmed. 

No casualties have been reported so far.

"The rocket struck Khwaja Bughra, a populated residential area in Police District 15, in the west of the Hamid Karzai International Airport roughly at 4:55 p.m. local time. Casualties are feared," witness Ghulam Hazrat told Xinhua.

Images circulating on social media showed plumes of black smoke billowing above some buildings. 

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

The blast came only days after a deadly explosion near the airport on Thursday left at least 170 people dead. 

Taliban on Sunday hold a meeting with officials from Afghanistan's western Nimroz province and tribal leaders, Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Qatar's capital Doha said on Sunday. 

Tweeting with a video showing dozens of people gather in a meeting room, the spokesperson also said the Taliban have held a series of meetings with people from different spectrums in several areas across the country.

Two journalists were among the victims of a deadly explosion at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, according to independent Afghan media group Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC).

"Ali Reza Ahmadi, a reporter for Raha News Agency and Najma Sadeqi, former presenter at Jahan-e-Sihat TV channel were killed in Thursday's airport attack," AFJC tweeted on Sunday.

At least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. soldiers were killed and about 200 people were wounded in the suicide blast that hit an eastern airport gate as huge crowds waited for evacuation flights.

Taliban leaders are consulting with different ethnicities and political parties about forming an inclusive government, TOLOnews reported on Saturday, citing Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a senior member of the Taliban's political office.

Addressing the country on the national radio and television stations, Stanikzai said all people from different walks of life will be included in the next government.

"Currently, the Taliban leadership is consulting with different ethnic groups, political parties and within the Islamic Emirate about forming a government that has to be accepted both inside and outside Afghanistan and to be recognized," Stanikzai was quoted as saying.

On the same day, another Taliban official Zabihullah Mujahid echoed the remarks, saying a new cabinet is now under preparation.

When asked if women would be included in the new cabinet, he said this would be a matter for the leadership to decide and he could not anticipate what their decision would be.

(With input from Reuters)

(Cover: Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid (C, Rear) attends a press conference, his first public appearance, in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, August 17, 2021. /Xinhua)

Afghan survivors from last week's suicide bombing at Kabul airport said they were shot at by U.S. troops, a digital platform of the China Media Group (CMG) reported on Monday. 

"I felt that there were a lot of people being wounded or killed by gunshots," one of the survivors told a CMG reporter. 

Some casualties inflicted during the attack were from gunshots fired by foreign troops at the scene, CMG previously reported.

Throngs of Afghans and foreign citizens have been rushing to the airport since the Taliban took over Kabul earlier this month. Uncertain about what the Taliban's rule will be like, they have been eager to get on a flight before August 31, when U.S. forces are scheduled to leave the country altogether. 

Areas surrounding the airport were often congested and disorderly, leaving the site highly vulnerable to terrorist attacks. On August 26, a suicide bomber detonated himself, triggering an explosion that tore through crowds trying to get into the U.S.-controlled facility.

"I was not injured from the explosion, but American soldiers fired at us," said another survivor who was shot in his hand and left side of his waist.

Not all casualties were caused by the suicide bombing for which ISIS-K, the Afghan branch of ISIS, has claimed responsibility, according to a CMG report, which cited statements from some of their families and the wounded. 

One of the fatalities showed no signs of other injuries except for gunshot wounds, the only cause of death determined by a doctor, according to the victim's family. 

American, Turkish and other foreign troops fired their weapons during the chaos after the bomb went off at the airport, eyewitnesses at the scene told CMG.

At least three people were shot dead, they said.

The U.S. military has not responded to the issue.

An Afghan interpreter told CMG his wife and 6-year-old son were both shot in their ankles. The interpreter had previously worked for American forces. 

Prior to the suicide bombing, America and its Western allies had warned that terror attacks were very likely to take place at the airport.

Countries involved in the evacuation had urged people to stay away, but the attack nonetheless achieved its maximum effect. At least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed.

The U.S. and coalition forces have handed over control of three gates, including the entrance to the military section, of Kabul's airport to Taliban members, a Taliban official told local media Sunday.

"The U.S. troops are in control of a small part of the airport, including an area where the radar system of the airport is located," Enhamullah Samangani told Tolo News TV.

The Taliban deployed a special forces unit to the main gate of the airport about two weeks ago.

"We are ready to take over the security and technical responsibility of the airport," he said.

U.S. forces are in the final phase of their evacuation from Kabul and just over 1,000 civilians inside the airport remain to be flown out before troops are withdrawn, Reuters reported on Sunday citing a Western security official in the Afghan capital.

The Taliban and the departing U.S. forces are aiming for a swift handover of Kabul airport, Reuters reported on Sunday citing a Taliban official.

"We are waiting for the final nod from the Americans to secure full control over Kabul airport," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said the Taliban had a team of technical experts and highly qualified engineers ready to take over the airport.

The Afghan Taliban said on Sunday that they are ready to take over the airport as the evacuation of the U.S. and its allies comes near the end.

"The U.S. troops are in control of a small part of the airport, including an area where the radar system of the airport is located," Enhamullah Samangani told Tolo News TV, noting that the U.S. and coalition forces have handed over control of three gates, including the entrance to the military section, of Kabul's airport, to Taliban members.

"We are ready to take over the security and technical responsibility of the airport," he said.

Taliban deployed a unit of special forces at the main gate of the airport about two weeks ago.

The takeover came after a deadly suicide bomb blast and gun firing claimed by ISIS-K, a local affiliate of the Islamic State (ISIL), killed 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops at an eastern gate of the facility on Thursday.

Earlier a Taliban official reportedly said that the Taliban's special forces, and a team of technical professionals and qualified engineers were ready to take over all charges of the airport after the departure of the U.S. forces.

Dozens of planes, including military planes, took off from the airport since late Saturday. Most of some 6,000 U.S. and coalition forces and a unit of Afghan Special Forces who were deployed to the airport before the Taliban's takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15 had reportedly evacuated.

A new cabinet

The Taliban on Saturday said they were preparing a new cabinet as the U.S. evacuation nears its end.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's main spokesman, made the statement as the U.S. military winds down its mission to withdraw troops and evacuate U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans from Kabul airport ahead of the August 31 deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden.

The exact timing of the formation of a new cabinet remained unclear. According to Mujahid in a voice message, the makeup of the new cabinet would be cleared "in one or two weeks."

Proposal for a safe zone

France and Britain will submit a resolution to an emergency United Nations (UN) meeting due Monday on Afghanistan proposing a safe zone in Kabul to try and protect people trying to leave the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday.

"Our resolution proposal aims to define a safe zone in Kabul, under UN control, which would allow humanitarian operations to continue," Macron told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) in an interview published on Sunday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is convening a meeting on Afghanistan with the UN envoys for China, Russia, Britain, France and the United States – the Security Council's permanent, veto-wielding members.

Macron said on Saturday that France was holding preliminary discussions with the Taliban about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and the possible evacuation of more people from the country.

"We have begun having discussions, which are very fragile and preliminary, with the Taliban on the issue of humanitarian operations and the ability to protect and repatriate Afghans who are at risk," Macron told a news conference.

The French government said on Friday it had finished its evacuation operation from Kabul in line with that timetable but would continue to help those who needed protection to leave Afghanistan.

Macron also said France would keep troops in Iraq as part of anti-terrorism operations for as long as the Iraqi government needed them to stay, regardless of whether or not the United States decides to withdraw.

"Whatever the Americans decide, we will maintain our presence to fight against terrorism in Iraq," he said.

U.S. military forces, which have guarded the airport in Kabul, are due to withdraw by Tuesday. France is among the countries that have also ended evacuations from Kabul airport.

Read more:

What the Afghan explosions reveal about U.S.

Last UK plane takes off

Meanwhile, the last UK plane with only civilians on board took off from Kabul on Saturday, leaving hundreds of Afghans eligible for resettlement behind.

The government is winding up its operation to airlift civilians, diplomats and troops out of Afghanistan ahead of the August 31 deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal.

The ministry said further planes could carry some civilians along with military and diplomats.

Earlier on Saturday, General Sir Nick Carter, head of the UK armed forces, told the BBC that the evacuation effort would end "during the course of today."

"We have some civilian flights to take out, but it's very few now," Carter said, after which "it will be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft."

The UK Ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, tweeted a video of himself standing on the airfield with military planes in the background, wearing a bullet-proof vest.

He said his team had been working "to the very last moment to evacuate British nationals, Afghans and others at risk." 

"Since August 13, we have brought nearly 15,000 people to safety," the ambassador said.

Carter said the evacuation operation had "gone as well as it could do," but it was "heartbreaking" that "we haven't been able to bring everybody out."

The armed forces chief estimated the number of eligible Afghans who had not been evacuated to be "in the high hundreds." He stressed that they will be welcome in Britain if they manage to leave after the deadline, through third countries or other ways.

Read more:

UK wraps up evacuations from Afghanistan, leaving hundreds behind

Biden: New Kabul airport attack 'highly likely' soon

U.S. military commanders believe that another terror attack like the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport is "highly likely in the next 24-36 hours," Biden warned Saturday.

After a briefing from his national security team, Biden said in a statement that a U.S. drone strike targeting the Islamic State-Khorasan group (ISIS-K), which claimed responsibility for Thursday's carnage at the airport, was "not the last."

"The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high. Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours," Biden said.

(With input from agencies)

The U.S. embassy in Kabul on Saturday urged its citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and avoid all airport gates due to a "specific, credible threat."

U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday promised further strikes against the ISIS-K in Afghanistan in retaliation for a deadly bombing outside Kabul airport and warned that the situation on the ground continued to be "extremely dangerous."

"This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay," Biden said in a statement. "Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours. I directed them to take every possible measure to prioritize force protection."

The Pentagon said on Saturday that two high-profile targets of ISIS-K, a local affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, were killed in a U.S. drone strike on Friday.

"Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, one was wounded, and we know of zero civilian casualties," U.S. Army Major General Hank Taylor told reporters in a Pentagon briefing.

U.S. Central Command initially assessed on Friday that the drone strike, which occurred in Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan, killed one ISIS-K planner.

The strike came after a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday which killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans. ISIS-K had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in the briefing that the U.S. military supporting evacuation had begun its withdrawal from Kabul airport.

President Joe Biden set Aug. 31 as the deadline to end U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.

The United States has been scrambling to evacuate Americans and its Afghan partners from the country since the Taliban entered Kabul on Aug. 15. The White House said on Saturday around 111,900 people had left Afghanistan since Aug. 14.

The final evacuation flight purely for civilians under Britain's Operation Pitting has left the Kabul airport, the British Ministry of Defense said Saturday.

Any further flights leaving Kabul under Britain's evacuation operation "will have UK diplomatic and military personnel on board," the ministry added.

General Nick Carter, Britain's chief of defense staff, said: "(The withdrawal) is not how we hoped it would end."

"I think we have done an extraordinary job to evacuate as many as we can, but I'm afraid it's absolutely heart-breaking we can't get everybody out," Carter told Sky News.

He warned that Britain is "not out of the woods yet" as this final phase gets under way.

"The operation will carry on for a little bit longer. But it's been a huge enterprise," he said, noting that troops are working in the face of a "very demanding threat" in Afghanistan.

Two suicide bomb attacks rocked the Kabul airport in the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing at least 103 people, including 13 U.S. service members, two British nationals and a child of another British national.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, saying it was targeting "translators and collaborators with the American army."

Britain had airlifted 14,543 Afghans and British nationals from Kabul since its Operation Pitting began on Aug. 13, the ministry of defense said on Friday night.

Only three days remain for U.S.-led forces to evacuate from the Taliban-held Afghanistan, after U.S. allies failed to persuade U.S. President Joe Biden to extend the Aug. 31 evacuation deadline during a Group of Seven virtual summit earlier this week.

The rapidly changing political situation in Afghanistan is deeply affecting the lives of millions of Afghans and gripping the world's attention. What is life like for residents living there now? CGTN Stringer interviewed Ezatullah, a melon vendor in Kabul, who talked about how his life and work have changed since the Taliban entered the city. When asked how he feels about the current situation, he replied: "Security is good now."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the situation in Afghanistan on Saturday, according to Johnson's office. 

Both two leaders agreed on the need for international aid and a common approach by the G7 to the future government of Afghanistan.

The last dedicated evacuation flight back to the UK has left Kabul, reported Sky News on Saturday, citing defense sources.

The remaining flights over the weekend are set to bring home British troops as well as the final small numbers of Afghan evacuees who have permission to fly, according to the report.

(With input from Reuters)

U.S. troop deaths on August 26 stoke more criticism of President Joe Biden's troop withdrawal decision. Wang Jin, professor from Northwest University of China, shared with CGTN his insights. He said that Afghanistan has become more fragile since U.S. intervention, especially after U.S. started to draw down military presence.

CGTN correspondent Parwiz Karokhail interviewed an Afghan who said he had legal documents and has been trying his luck for days at Hamid Karzai International Airport. He shared his experience there. He said that he came to the airport for the past few days but has been not able to hand over his documents.

British troops will complete their evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan on Saturday, reported BBC, citing armed forces chief General Nick Carter. 

"We're reaching the end of the evacuation, which will take place during the course of today. And then it will be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft," he told BBC.

Since August 13, Britain has evacuated more than 14,500 Afghan and British nationals, the defense ministry said on Friday.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Saturday the Islamic State group (ISIS) "remains a threat", days after an affiliate of the group claimed a deadly bombing in Kabul. 

Macron made the remarks after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi in Baghdad. 

The fight against these terrorist groups is a priority of the Iraqi government, said Macron.

France has finished its evacuation operation from Afghanistan's capital, Defense Minister Florence Parly announced in a tweet on Friday.

The U.S. military said on Friday it had carried out a drone strike against a "planner" of ISIS-K, the group which claimed credit for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport.  

"Initial indications are that we killed the target," said Captain Bill Urban of the Central Command. "We know of no civilian casualties," he added in a statement, announcing the first reported U.S. strike since Thursday's attack that killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of Afghan civilians. 

U.S. Central Command said the strike took place in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul and bordering Pakistan. It did not say whether the target was connected with the airport attack. 

The U.S. strike, launched from outside of Afghanistan, came as the airlift of evacuees from Kabul airport continued under much-heightened security after the attack.  

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U.S. President Joe Biden vowed on Thursday that the U.S. would hunt down those responsible for the attack, saying he had ordered the Pentagon to come up with plans to strike at the perpetrators. 

"We will not forgive, we will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," he said. 

Thursday's attack marked the first U.S. military casualties in Afghanistan since February 2020 and represented the deadliest incident for U.S. troops there in a decade, according to multiple reports.  

There are roughly 5,000 U.S. troops at Kabul airport, helping to evacuate U.S. citizens, their Afghan partners and other nationalities before Biden's August 31 deadline. 

Biden has defended his handling of his most serious foreign policy crisis, saying ultimately it is his responsibility, while assigning some blame to his predecessor Donald Trump for the 2020 agreement the Trump administration negotiated and signed with the Taliban. 

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

(Cover: In this image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, Marines assist with security at an evacuation control checkpoint at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 20, 2021. /CFP)

The US Embassy in Kabul again warned U.S. citizens at a number of gates at the airport to "leave immediately," citing security threats.

The alert advised U.S. citizens "to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates."

Blood, clothing, backpacks and personal belongings of Afghan people killed while waiting to be evacuated from Kabul can be seen at the site of the August 26 suicide bomb that killed scores of people, including 13 U.S. service members.  

After the explosion, ISIS-K gunmen opened fire on the crowd, the commander of the U.S. Central Command said, which included children.  

At least 90 Afghan citizens were killed.

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Representatives of the Taliban met a French delegation on Thursday in Qatar, for the first time since they took power in Afghanistan almost two weeks ago. The French foreign ministry confirmed talks with representatives of the Taliban in Kabul and Doha to ease France's ongoing evacuations from the Afghan capital.

A Taliban spokesperson said the group that met on August 26 included Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the deputy director of the Taliban's political office, and French envoy François Richier.

The Taliban spokesperson explained that "political issues and ongoing situation of Afghanistan came under discussion."

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An immigration desk will open on Monday in Paris to register asylum applications from Afghans evacuated from Kabul.

The news was announced on August 27 by the French office for immigration and integration, the body responsible for receiving people brought to France from Afghanistan. France has flown more than 2,500 Afghans from Kabul since it began evacuation operations earlier in the year.

France's European affairs minister said that the country will end its evacuation operation in Kabul "soon" but may seek to extend it until after Friday night. Clement Beaune told French radio station Europe 1 that France was continuing to pursue its operation to "evacuate the maximum number of people."

The French prime minister Jean Castex had previously said that France would end its evacuation flights from Afghanistan by the evening of August 27. Castex had conceded that from that point on, "it will no longer be possible to carry out such flights," ahead of the planned U.S. departure from Kabul airport next week.

However, the Europe minister said this plan had now been delayed due to Thursday's attacks near Kabul airport. Two explosions were reported after ISIS-K, the Afghanistan faction of the extremist group detonated a suicide bomb. At least 85 people were killed, including 13 U.S. troops and two UK citizens.

France has been moving people to Paris from Kabul via an airbase in the UAE. "The evacuation operation will continue until the departure of the last French soldier," said French military authorities.

Two British nationals, and the child of another national, were killed in the Islamic State's attack at Kabul airport, and two others were also injured, according to the foreign secretary Dominic Raab.

"These were innocent people and it is a tragedy that as they sought to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK they were murdered by cowardly terrorists," Raab said.

Following Thursday's attack, prime minister Boris Johnson had said that, despite what he called "a barbaric act," evacuations from Afghanistan would continue.

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But the UK is now wrapping up its evacuations at Kabul airport. And according to the defense minister Ben Wallace, the last flights out for British nationals and Afghan allies and their families will be over by the end of the day.

The remaining troops will leave over the weekend.

"For now, we are going to get our last thousand out, people on the inside of the airfield that we've brought across to Baron Hotel," he said. The hotel was reportedly the scene of one of two blasts that killed at least 85 people, although U.S. security officials now believe there was only one bomb that was detonated at the Abbey gate of Kabul International Airport.

"We will process them, bring them out and if possible if we identify people outside still that we can find a way of getting in," said Wallace. "Then we will see what we can do, but the main process, the main effort is over."

Afghan refugees who have managed to get out are starting to arrive in the UK. The government says it has evacuated 13,000 people so far. They are among more than 100,000 civilians flown out since the Taliban took over Kabul.

But not everyone eligible to leave has managed to get out, with around 1,000 Afghans and up to 150 British nationals left in Afghanistan, according to the ministry of defense.

In the rush to leave the embassy when the Taliban took over Kabul, documents with addresses and contact details for several Afghans who had been employed at the Embassy had not been shredded but were left lying around. 

The foreign office says that it has rescued three of the families identified on the documents.

The UK government is now encouraging those left behind to find a safe exit by other means, such as crossing into Pakistan. The UK hopes to process the remaining applications at the British Embassy there. 

It's not clear how the Taliban will react to people trying to cross the border, or how many refugees Pakistan is prepared to let in.

There are still around 5,400 people at Kabul's airport, all of whom are hoping to be lucky enough to board one of the grey military planes leaving Afghanistan. It is a scene of chaos and uncertainty that brings back memories to Rezare Mokhtar, a member of the executive committee of the Afghans refugee and migrant community.

"When the civil war started, I was in Afghanistan with my family. I still have the scar from then," he said. "When I look at myself in the mirror, I always see the scar. Sometimes I feel pain. It's part of me now. Everywhere I go, it follows me. It will always hunt me.

"It will always remind me what I went through and who the Taliban are."

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The return of the Taliban to power in Kabul has plunged the future of many Afghans into uncertainty and sparked concern that millions may head to Europe as they flee the war-torn country.

The prime minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, called on the European Union to support the countries neighboring Afghanistan to stop a new migrant wave from the Taliban-controlled country.

"We must not relive the 2015 drama and its consequences … There are many different views on what happened or what should have happened in Afghanistan. There is definitely a need for a European response to the crisis," said Greece's migration minister Notis Mitarachi.

Greece is still struggling in the aftermath of the 2015 migration crisis when thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers fled from conflicts in the Middle East to the Greek islands of Lesvos, Chios and Samos.

"We cannot have millions of people leaving Afghanistan and coming to the European Union … and certainly not through Greece," Mitarachi said.

Greece completed a 40-kilometer fence on its border with Turkey earlier this week. And a new surveillance system was in place to stop possible asylum seekers from trying to reach Europe.

The country is looking to prevent a recurrence of the events in 2020 when thousands of migrants and asylum seekers tried to storm the Greek border at Evros to pass through to the EU.

"The crisis in Afghanistan is creating new parameters in the geopolitical sphere, and at the same time creates the possibility of migratory flows," Michalis Chrisochoidis from the Ministry for Public Order and Citizen Protection said.

Greece currently hosts 40,000 Afghan asylum-seekers and refugees, who make up most migrants arriving in Greece.

The Pentagon said there was only one suicide bomber involved in Thursday's Kabul attack, correcting its earlier assessment that there were two bombers and two separate explosions. 

"I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, that it was one suicide bomber," Army Major General William Taylor told reporters.

Briefing media on the current situation, the U.S. military also said that 5,400 people inside Kabul airport are still waiting to be airlifted.

(With input from agencies)

The last Italian plane has left Kabul with Afghan civilians, Italian diplomats and military officials aboard, said the foreign ministry.

Kabul airport explosion death toll has risen to 170, CBS News reported citing an Afghan official.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday condemned "in the strongest terms" the terrorist attacks near the Kabul airport, which has resulted in the death and injuries of dozens of civilians, including children and military personnel.  

"The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms all instances of terrorism and deliberate attacks against civilians. They recalled that all parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law in all circumstances, including those related to the protection of civilians," the UNSC said in a statement.

"Deliberately targeting civilians and personnel assisting in the evacuation of civilians is especially abhorrent and must be condemned," the statement added. 

The Kabul airport attack on Thursday, which killed 13 U.S. troops and at least 79 Afghans, was claimed by ISIS-K, a radical affiliation of ISIS. 

Tens of thousands of people have been fleeing Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power as foreign forces withdraw. The Security Council "called on all relevant parties to respect and facilitate the safe evacuation of civilians." 

China condemned the attacks on Friday and vowed to work alongside the world in combating all acts of terrorism. 

(With input from Reuters) 

(Cover: The United Nations headquarters building in New York. /CFP)

On the evening of August 26, a loud noise jolted me and my cameraman away from the work of organizing the video clips and translating the subtitles. The glass in the office shook almost simultaneously.

Years of experience told us something must have blown up. The cameraman and I looked at each other, hurried to tidy up the equipment that had not yet been charged, and messages from the main station's work group kept ringing.

I looked at the clock on the wall before leaving. It was 6:22 p.m. local time in Kabul.

Friends in the media at the scene told us that the explosion occurred near the airport. Sources were continuing to update me on casualties, ranging from several to more than a dozen, and I kept urging security guard and driver Ajmal to drive a little faster.

Most of the people on the street looked in the direction of the airport, the sound of the explosion came again, and it seemed to be more violent than the last time.

I told the driver to stop at the nearest hospital to the airport since it was almost impossible to go on. There were many people gathered at the entrance, and many more came from the direction of the airport, most of them covered in blood.

Blood was still seeping through the folded kerchiefs of an elder, two young men were taking care of each other as their legs were injured, and a middle-aged man was pushing a wheelbarrow toward the hospital.

Inside the wheelbarrow, which was used for transporting cement and gravel at a road construction site next to the hospital, a middle-aged man was crouching on his side, moaning in pain

Medical staff were too busy to take care of the injured. Within minutes, dozen of cars, ambulances and private vehicles, stopped and left in the open space outside the hospital. The door to the hospital was still closed to keep out terrorists.

A few armed guards were keeping the order. They didn't look like the Taliban, and there was panic and fear in their eyes as well.

Outside the hospital, people were picking up bullhorns and shouting some names.

While we were interviewing a witness at the scene, a few friends came across the street.

After the second blast, they told me, the U.S. military had tightened security at the airport, the Taliban had increased security on the perimeter, and they were driving away all the media figures.

I got a video from a friend of mine of a ditch outside the wall of Kabul International Airport, which I visited twice in a row after the Taliban entered the city. For the past 10 days or so, Afghans have been sitting in knee-deep dirty water, praying for the help of the U.S. troops inside the fence to get them out of Afghanistan, and now they're lying in a bloody river, and never able to leave.

Late at night, we returned to the office since we couldn't get any closer. A succession of loud bangs were heard in the distance as we arrived. A spokesman for the Taliban said on social media that it was the Americans who were destroying their weapons and equipment.

They seem determined to leave, but can they really just walk away?

The final flight of evacuees from Afghanistan arrived in the Netherlands on Friday carrying 87 Dutch citizens, the Defence Ministry said.

Dutch military planes have taken more than 2,500 people out of Afghanistan since August 18.

Sweden said Friday it had ended its evacuations out of Kabul, after airlifting more than 1,100 people to Sweden in the wake of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. 

Those evacuated included embassy employees and their families, locally employed guards and their families, armed forces employees and 500 Swedes, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said. 

In addition, Sweden also evacuated women's rights activists, journalists and EU employees.

The number of those killed in Kabul airport blasts Thursday has risen to 110, according to an Afghan local media report.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Russia "condemns in the strongest possible terms" the twin suicide bombings – claimed by ISIL – on crowds trying to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. 

"Of course, it is very sad news about the large number of deaths," Peskov told reporters, adding that the incident "adds tension" to Afghanistan, a country that has been in turmoil since the Taliban swept into power earlier this month. 

"This continues to be a cause of our grave concern," Peskov said, adding that danger remained high for everyone in Afghanistan.

He said Russia's intelligence services are working round the clock to prevent any spillover into neighboring regions.

(With input from AFP)

Afghan local media said evacuation flights resumed from Kabul's international airport a day after deadly suicide bombings.

All the gates of Kabul airport were closed early Friday following Thursday's deadly attack, and the crowds outside the airport have cleared, a witness said.

"I drove a group of people to the airport early morning. We failed to reach the airport as Taliban foot soldiers did not allow vehicles to approach the airport, I drove them back to their home," a taxi driver Mohammad Quraishi told Xinhua.

Beijing has condemned ISIL – which has claimed responsibility for the Kabul airport carnage – for its "terrorist act" and vowed to work alongside the world in combating all acts of terrorism.

"ISIL has been listed, explicitly, as a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council, and has posed a direct threat to the safety to the Chinese nation and its people," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a regular press briefing on Friday.

Zhao added that no casualties among Chinese nationals had been reported as of Friday afternoon, while expressing deep condolences to the families of those killed.

Two blasts and gunfire rocked the area outside the airport on Thursday evening, witnesses said. Video shot by Afghan journalists showed dozens of bodies strewn around a canal on the edge of the airport, less than two weeks after the Taliban took control of Kabul.

ISIS-K, a local affiliate of the ISIL, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

In the press briefing, Zhao also urged the Taliban to live up to their commitment to combat all kinds of terrorism. 

"The Taliban officials have made that clear," Zhao said. "They should stay committed to their promise of drawing a line to all terrorist groups."

(CGTN's Su Yuting contributed to this report.)

(Cover: People run away from the explosion site near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, August 26, 2021. /Xinhua)

Spain has concluded the evacuation of its citizens from Afghanistan and all its diplomatic staff are safe in Dubai, El Pais reported on Friday, citing government sources.

Two military planes carrying the last 81 Spaniards arrived in Dubai from Kabul early on Friday morning, El Pais said.

The end of evacuation comes in the wake of Thursday's attack in the Afghan capital that has left at least 103 dead, including 13 U.S. soldiers.

British forces have entered the final stages of evacuating people from Kabul's airport and processing facilities have closed, Britain's defense ministry said on Friday.

"No further people will be called forward to the airport for evacuation," the ministry said.

At least 103 people were killed in the two explosions outside Kabul airport on Thursday, according to a CMG reporter citing TOLO News on Friday. 

At least 28 of the 60 Afghans killed in the attack outside Kabul airport on Thursday were Taliban members, Reuters reported, citing a Taliban official who declined to be identified.

There remains no reason to extend the August 31 deadline for foreign forces to leave Afghanistan, said the official.

Dozens of people were killed and many more injured in the attacks outside Kabul airport on August 26 that ISIL has claimed responsibility for.

At least 103 people, including 13 U.S. service members, were killed and 155 others injured after twin explosions rocked the area outside Kabul airport in the Afghan capital on Thursday, ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden's August 31 deadline to withdraw American troops after two decades. 

ISIL has claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to a statement from the group's Amaq News Agency cited in multiple reports.

In the statement, ISIL said that a suicide bomber "managed to reach a large gathering of translators and collaborators with the American army at 'Baran Camp' near Kabul Airport and detonated his explosive belt among them."

A U.S. official told Reuters the number of U.S. personnel killed was likely to rise. More than a dozen were wounded. 

The attack marked the first U.S. military casualties in Afghanistan since February 2020 and represented the deadliest incident for American troops in the country in a decade.

"We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," U.S. President Joe Biden said in emotional remarks at the White House, promising that the group's actions would not stop a mass evacuation airlift. 

Biden said he had ordered military commanders to develop plans to strike ISIL assets, leaders and facilities. "We will respond with force and precision at our time at a place we choose in a moment of our choosing," he said. 

He added that the United States had an idea of who had ordered the attacks, although it was not certain. 

Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, head of the U.S. military's Central Command, told a news briefing the explosions were followed by a gunfight, saying that the threat from ISIL persists alongside "other active threat streams." 

"We believe it is their desire to continue these attacks and we expect those attacks to continue – and we're doing everything we can to be prepared," McKenzie said. 

The evacuation mission "remains" uninterrupted by the blasts, he added. "We are still committed to flying people out up until we terminate the operations at some point towards the end of the month." 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered the flags at the U.S. Capitol in Washington to be flown at half-staff "in honor of the U.S. service members and others" killed in the attack. 

More than 100,000 people from Afghanistan have been evacuated since August 14, the White House said Thursday. "Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 100,100 people," the White House said in a statement issued hours after the explosions. 

World leaders, organizations condemn attack, race to evacuate 

After the explosions, foreign countries raced to evacuate as many people as possible before an August 31 deadline.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has responded to the attacks on Twitter, saying he is "deeply saddened by the deaths of U.S. military personnel and Afghans in the horrific terrorist attacks in Kabul. We mourn your tragic loss. Australia condemns these heinous and barbaric attacks." 

Morrison confirmed that all Australian defense force and other personnel "are safe." 

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said of the UK's ongoing evacuation effort, "we're going to keep going until the last moment" despite the deadly attack. 

French President Emmanuel Macron also pledged to see the evacuations "through to the end," offered "his condolences to the families of the American and Afghan victims" and saluted "the heroism of those who are on the ground to carry out the evacuation operations." 

"Our priority remains to evacuate as many people to safety as quickly as possible," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. 

"Civilians must be protected. @WHO is on the ground in #Afghanistan and ready to support health facilities to treat the wounded," said the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Twitter. 

Several and dead and dozens more are injured after two suicide bombers exploded near Kabul airport on Thursday.

Hundreds have been gathering outside the airport in hopes of getting onto a flight out of the country.

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Germany has pulled out all its soldiers from Afghanistan with its last evacuation flight from Kabul, Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Thursday.

"All soldiers, members of the foreign ministry and federal police who have led this mission to a safe end for us on the ground have been flown out of Kabul," said the minister, adding that the military evacuation mission has therefore now ended.

Germany evacuated more than 5,100 people, including more than 3,600 Afghans.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the the "heinous" attack outside Kabul airport on Thursday aimed at people seeking evacuation from Afghanistan that left at least six dead.

"We don't know all the details yet but the terrorists targeted people waiting at the airport gates who was hoping to leave,"Merkel said.

"They wanted security and freedom and that is why it is an absolutely heinous attack in a very, very tense situation.”  

(With input from agencies)

France's Prime Minister Jean Castex said that the country will end its evacuation flights from Afghanistan by the evening of August 27, although that decision may be expedited following the news of an explosion at Kabul International Airport on Thursday.

Castex admitted that from that point on "it will no longer be possible to carry out such flights," ahead of the planned U.S. departure from Kabul airport next week. 

France has been moving people to Paris from Kabul via an airbase in the United Arab Emirates and it has so far flown to safety more than 100 French citizens and some 2,000 Afghans. 

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Twelve flights have taken place so far, with the last possible departures planned to happen by Friday evening at the latest. 

In a communique released on Thursday, the French foreign ministry said that since August 15, around 2,500 people have been evacuated from Kabul, as well as a few dozen citizens of partner countries. 

The statement said that: "Operations are still ongoing. These people [who have been moved to safety in recent days] are added to the hundreds of Afghans threatened because of their links with our country that we have sheltered in recent years, and in the spring of this year, in anticipation of the current crisis." 

France began its airlifts in early May, flying out non-essential staff, so it has had the capacity to be able to evacuate people who are neither French nor Afghan. The French ambassador to Afghanistan said that France had been able to evacuate more than 250 people from the European Union's delegation to Kabul. 

The French president Emmanuel Macron had a phone call with his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rahmon, on the evening of August 25. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the north, and in the call, the two presidents "shared their deep concern about the situation in Afghanistan."

Elsewhere in Europe, other nations are also finishing up their evacuations. Thursday marks the last day for Dutch flights taking people to the Netherlands from Afghanistan. Poland, Belgium, Denmark and Hungary have all already completed their evacuation missions. 

The airlifts have been taking place ahead of a full withdrawal of the U.S. from Afghanistan. U.S. president Joe Biden said he will stick to his August 31 deadline for completing the U.S. pullout, and the Taliban – which now controls almost all the country – has insisted he must not extend the U.S. presence into September.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has made her most significant comments to date about the situation in Afghanistan while speaking before the German parliament on Wednesday.

She said that she misjudged how the withdrawal of international armed forces would play out. "All of us who were involved in Afghanistan – in other words, the entire international coalition – we all underestimated the speed of developments. This includes Germany," Merkel said.

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Merkel told lawmakers that she expected the Afghan security forces and former political leaders to resist the Taliban rather than stand down and flee the country. "Once Afghanistan's political leadership fled the country, things sped up even more," she added.

The Chancellor has previously suggested that the pullout of troops did not come at the right time. She insisted that allied forces are closely working together, but under U.S. leadership – although the comments were made before news of a suspected suicide explosion near Kabul airport.

With the U.S. standing firm on its August 31 departure date, Germany is making final arrangements to pull out its military presence.

Merkel did not announce a formal end date for evacuation flights but said it would "come in a few days." German media has reported that it will happen on Friday. 

To date, the German military has evacuated 4,600 people, but officials said around 300 German citizens are still in Kabul seeking a way out.

At least 13 people, including children, were killed in an explosion outside Kabul airport, reported Reuters, citing a Taliban official.

The blast appeared to be caused by a suicide bomb, reported Reuters, citing U.S. officials.

The explosion comes after warnings that there could be militant attacks, as nations rush to evacuate people ahead of an August 31 deadline. Canada and Germany have completed their evacuations.

A suspected suicide bomb exploded outside Kabul airport on Thursday, killing at least 13 people, including children, a Taliban official said, after the United States and allies urged Afghans to leave the area because of a threat by Islamic State.

The official said many Taliban guards were wounded.

A U.S. official said U.S. service members were among the wounded, adding he was citing an initial report and cautioning that it could change. He said there were casualties but did not know how many or of what nationality.

Local media said three U.S. servicemen and some Taliban guards were among the injured. 

Thousands of people have been gathering outside the airport in recent days. Western troops are racing to evacuate foreigners and Afghans who helped Western countries during the 20-year war against the Taliban, and withdraw by an August 31 deadline.

(With input from Reuters, Xinhua)

-Roughly 13,400 people were airlifted from Afghanistan on Wednesday, raising the total number of those evacuated by the U.S. and coalition partners since August 14 to about 95,700, the White House said on Thursday.

-Russia evacuated around 360 of its citizens from Afghanistan on Wednesday, Interfax news agency reported Thursday, citing the Russian ambassador to the country.

-The German military has airlifted more than 5,200 people from Kabul so far, including 4,200 Afghans and 505 Germans, Chief of Defence Eberhard Zorn said on Thursday.

-Britain's prime minister Boris Johnson says the "overwhelming majority" of people eligible to come to Britain have been evacuated from Afghanistan as about 15,000 people have left Kabul airport, but added time is running out on the airlift.

-Canadian forces in Kabul ended their efforts to evacuate citizens and Afghans earlier on Thursday, acting chief of the defense staff General Wayne Eyre said, adding Canada had evacuated around 3,700 Canadian and Afghan citizens.

(With input from Reuters)

Russia has yet to determine its position towards the Taliban, and will see how they act toward the Afghan population and Russian diplomats, President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson said on Thursday.

Moscow is interested in peace and stability in Afghanistan and will likely continue contacts with Washington on issues arising there, Dmitry Peskov told a briefing.

Hungary is ending evacuations in Afghanistan after airlifting 540 people, including Hungarian citizens and Afghans and their families who worked for Hungarian forces previously, the Hungarian Defence Minister Tibor Benko said on Thursday.

The two military passenger planes and all the troops involved in the operation have returned safely to Hungary, Benko told a news conference.

Poland has completed its Afghanistan evacuation mission after transporting more than 1,300 people from Kabul, officials said on Thursday. 

The evacuees were mainly Afghan staff of the Polish military contingent and included employees of the European Union and International Monetary Fund. 

"More than 1,300 people have been transported to Poland," Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz told reporters in Warsaw, adding that evacuations were being stopped "for security reasons".

A few banks in Kabul, Afghanistan, have resumed services on Wednesday after remaining shut for over a week, drawing locals to queue up while many banks are still closed.

Since the Taliban entered Kabul, all banks have closed, and only a few ATMs can provide limited cash withdrawals. The banks that reopened were only providing cash withdrawal services. An individual can only withdraw a maximum of 17,000 Afghan Afghani per day, or $200.

Outside Kabul Bank on Wednesday, hundreds of people were waiting to withdraw their money. Many showed up quite early in the morning. But the queue is so long that a large number missed out. 

Abdul Ahad, a Kabul resident, told China Media Group that "the security is better, there is no security problem. I faced a big problem. I do not have a job, the economy is bad, and some money that I had here in this bank is stuck. I faced a serious problem."

Banks would be open on Thursday, Zabihulla Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, announced in a press conference on Wednesday.

There is "very, very credible" intelligence that militants are planning an attack soon on those gathering at Kabul airport to flee Afghanistan, James Heappey, British armed forces minister, told BBC radio on Thursday, adding that the window to evacuate people is closing.

Hungary's two military passenger planes and all its troops taking part in evacuations have left Afghanistan and returned home safely, the Hungarian defense ministry said in a statement on Thursday. 

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday that the country's evacuation flights from Kabul were nearing an end. The central European country has airlifted more than 500 people from the Afghan capital.

Officials from the anti-Taliban National Resistance Front (NRF) met the Taliban on Wednesday, the first direct talks between the two sides, local media reported.

"There were some of the former ministers, some of the former MPs (members of parliament), not only from Panjshir (where NRF fighters are holding out), but from other provinces, too," Fahim Dashty, who is working closely in Panjshir with NRF leader Ahmad Massoud, was quoted as saying.

Abdul Hafiz Mansoor, who represents the northern province, also confirmed the meeting on his Facebook account and said it was held "in a good atmosphere."

The talks were held in Charikar, the capital of neighboring Parwan province, and were due to continue on Thursday as the two sides seek a peaceful solution to avoid bloodshed or further conflict, the media reports say.

Mohammad Ali Joyan, a former Afghan government official, said the country has been in a critical condition since the Taliban takeover. The current situation is still unpredictable and whether he will continue to serve the new government is unclear. "Everything depends on peace talks and we hope that the peace talks will reach a positive outcome," he said.

Approximately 4,000 ISIL members are hiding in Afghanistan, Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov said on Wednesday.

"As far as I understand, ISIL terrorists are hiding, that is why there are no clashes (with the Taliban). There are few – some 4,000 ones – that is why any frontal clash will have a clear outcome, that is why they are hiding," Zhirnov told the Solovyov Live YouTube channel.

The U.S., UK and Australia have raised alarm on safety around the Kabul airport. 

The Taliban said on Thursday that their guards continue to protect civilians outside the airport.

"Our guards are also risking their lives at Kabul airport," a Taliban official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding they also face a threat from ISIL. 

(With input from Reuters)

Australia and New Zealand have evacuated a further 1,200 people from Afghanistan. 

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Thursday that they were flown out of Kabul on six Australian flights and one New Zealand flight on Wednesday night in the biggest evacuation effort since the city fell to the Taliban.

It took the total number of people airlifted by the two nations to about 4,000.

Australia has joined the U.S. and Britain in warning citizens and visa holders not to travel to Kabul airport.

(With input from Xinhua)

At least 25 people have died in and around Kabul airport in the past 10 days, local media reported on Wednesday. 

The Taliban had previously called on people without travel documents to leave the airport and return home, saying the U.S. was responsible for the unrest at Kabul airport, the report added. 

The Taliban have told Germany that Afghans with legal documents will be able to travel on commercial flights beyond the August 31 cut-off date, after which evacuations from Kabul airport will no longer be allowed, a senior German diplomat said on Wednesday.

"Director Stanekzai assured me that Afghans with legal documents will continue to have the opportunity to travel on commercial flights after August 31," German envoy on Afghanistan Markus Potzel, who is negotiating with the Taliban in Doha, said on Twitter.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai is the head of the Taliban's political office in Doha.

"We talked about the urgent need for a functioning airport in Kabul as a prerequisite for [a] diplomatic & NGO presence" in Afghanistan, Potzel, who has been negotiating with the Taliban extensively in the past, added.

The Taliban have asked Turkey for technical help to run Kabul airport after the departure of foreign forces but insist that Ankara's military also withdraw fully by the August 31 deadline, reported Reuters, citing two Turkish officials.

The Turkish defense ministry on Wednesday said it had started to evacuate its troops from Afghanistan. 

The Kabul international airport is being guarded by U.S. and British troops.

(With input from Reuters)

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul advised U.S. citizens not to travel to the Hamid Karzai International Airport, also known as Kabul international airport, at this time, according to an embassy security alert.

Citizens already at the airport's Abbey Gate, East Gate and North Gate were advised to leave immediately, said the security alert.

"Because of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so," the embassy said. 

In a similar advisory, Britain told people in the airport area to "move away to a safe location." 

"There is an ongoing and high threat of terrorist attack," the British Foreign Office said in its statement.

(With input from Reuters)

As many as 1,500 American citizens may still need to be evacuated from Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, adding that the Taliban had pledged to allow departures after foreign troops leave. 

"We are aggressively reaching out to them multiple times a day through multiple channels of communication... to determine whether they still want to leave," Blinken told reporters at a news conference. 

He also said that Washington has so far evacuated 4,500 U.S. citizens and their families, as President Joe Biden's deadline of August 31 to withdraw U.S. troops is just days away.

He said the United States would work to ensure Americans and Afghan partners leave Afghanistan beyond August 31. 

Read more:

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Biden confirmed on Tuesday that his administration aimed at completing evacuation by the deadline, and also asked for contingency plans to adjust the timeline if necessary. 

"We will use every diplomatic, economic assistance tool at our disposal, working hand-in-hand with the international community, first and foremost to ensure that those who want to leave Afghanistan after the 31st are able to do so," said Blinken when asked about steps to assure "high-risk Afghans" would not be left behind after the U.S. troops withdrawal. 

The top U.S. diplomat said the Afghan Taliban had made "public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals and Afghans at risk going forward past August 31." 

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday that they want the U.S. to change its policy of encouraging Afghans to leave.

The United States has been scrambling to evacuate Americans and its Afghan partners from the country since the Taliban retook the capital Kabul on August 15. 

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pauses while speaking about Afghanistan during a media briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 25, 2021. /CFP)

About 10 million children in Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance to survive, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

UNICEF warns that 4.2 million of children are out of school. Some 435,000 kids are internally displaced. The UN has recorded more than 2,000 violations of children's rights since January.

A severe drought, water shortages, COVID-19, the oncoming winter and now the Taliban are all factors impacting the humanitarian needs of people in Afghanistan.

UNICEF expects the humanitarian crisis to get worse.

The organization says it will stay in Afghanistan in the days to come. 
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), one-third of the country's population is facing food insecurity. 

They're asking for $200 million by the end of the year, so they can keep working in Afghanistan after the Taliban's takeover.

Without this funding, WFP Executive Director David Beasley says the program will start to run out of food in September, reports Al Jazeera.

Beasley adds, the Taliban has assured the WFP can continue to provide aid to Afghanistan.

"So far they [the Taliban] have calibrated, cooperated and given us the access we need," he told Al Jazeera. 

But Afghanistan is facing economic collapse, as other countries and international institutions either withhold or say they will withhold aid and money to the nation under the Taliban.

The U.S. has already stopped the shipment of dollars to Afghanistan.

While the Taliban's recent takeover of the nation has impacted humanitarian needs across the country, the UN says even before the events of this month, millions of people needed assistance.

"Fighting across the country, which has claimed the lives of over 40,000 people since 2009 when UN reporting began, needs to stop. People have suffered enough," said UN Humanitarian Affairs chief and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths in a statement.

Thousands of children are not only in need of basic necessities, but many are also "deeply traumatized," warns UNICEF.

The head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan is calling the current situation "a new, deadlier, and more destructive phase."

The UN is calling on countries neighboring Afghanistan to keep their borders open

The organization also stresses the importance of international collaboration, access for humanitarian organizations to reach those in need and successful peace negotiations for a safer Afghanistan. 

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As the U.S. and other countries continue to evacuate people from the Kabul airport this week, Afghans appear to be adjusting to the presence of Taliban fighters in Kabul.

Many people waited in front of Kabul Bank on Wednesday, and others were seen selling and shopping for household items in a marketplace following the Taliban’s military takeover of Afghanistan.

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The U.S. is not extending an August 31st deadline for evacuations from Afghanistan - despite appeals by members of the G7 nations who met Tuesday on a video call. 

The decision is likely to further fracture relations with European leaders. 

CGTN’s Caroline Malone reports from Washington.

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The UK, along with France and Germany, is now resigned to the fact U.S. President Joe Biden will not extend the August 31 deadline for pulling all forces out of Afghanistan. The rush is still on to get out as many of their nationals and Afghan allies before then.

But the need for U.S. and UK troops to close down their operations at Kabul's airport means the actual deadline for evacuations of non-military personnel and civilians could be even sooner. 

The UK still hopes to continue evacuations right up to the deadline, but Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he is waiting to hear from the military about when flights might end.

"The question of the buffer, if you like, that the military need at the end of the withdrawal, we'll get further details in due course," he said.

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British newspaper The Guardian is reporting evacuations could end as early as the weekend.

Tuesday's G7 meeting discussed a roadmap for future engagement with the Taliban. The emphasis will be on holding the Taliban to its commitments including allowing Afghans to leave the country, not to retaliate against those who opposed it, as well as respecting women's rights and allowing girls to go to school.

Raab warned the UK and others are considering sanctions as a possible tool to keep the Taliban to its word.

"There's a whole range of tests for the Taliban and we will be looking to use what leverage we've got – the international financial institutions, the provision of aid, the potential for sanctions – to exert the maximum moderating influence that we can," Raab said.

Former Afghan government diplomat Ahmad Shah Katawazai reiterated the need for the Taliban's new government to be more moderate than its previous administrations in an interview with CGTN Europe. 

"This should be a moderate government, inclusive government and corruption-free government, where they can provide basic facilities to the people. And economic growth should be their priority. That's what the people want," he said. 

The Taliban has told CGTN Europe it will keep its promises and that it would be unfair to impose new sanctions. 

The question of withholding foreign aid as a potential sanction against the Taliban could prove be a controversial move, with fears that ordinary Afghans would be the ones to suffer most. 

The World Food Program estimated 20 million people are in need of humanitarian support in the country amid shortages of medicines and food and much of the countryside facing a severe drought. It said $200 million is urgently needed to help tackle food insecurity.

The World Bank announced it is halting funding for all of the country's reconstruction and development projects. The IMF also suspended payments and the Biden administration has frozen the Afghan central bank's assets held by the U.S. Federal Reserve. 

These issues are unlikely to be resolved until after the evacuation ends and the world gets an indication of what sort of government the Taliban forms.

About 19,000 people were evacuated from Kabul on Tuesday, raising the total number airlifted out of Afghanistan since August 14 to 82,300, the White House said on Wednesday.

In the past 24 hours, 42 U.S. military flights and 48 coalition flights helped evacuate people from the Afghan capital amid the Taliban takeover, it said.

The international community must maintain dialogue with the Taliban if it is to protect any improvements made in Afghanistan during the last two decades of NATO's deployment, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday. 

"Our goal must be to preserve as much as possible what we have achieved in terms of changes in Afghanistan in the last 20 years. This is something the international community must talk about with the Taliban," Merkel said in a speech to parliament.

The World Bank has halted funding for projects in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of the country, a World Bank spokesperson announced on Tuesday.

The organization has concerns over how the Taliban's takeover will impact "the country's development prospects, especially for women."

It is "very probable" that France's operations to evacuate its citizens and partners from Afghanistan will end on Thursday, French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune told C News TV.

It came as President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the United States is on pace to complete the pullout from Afghanistan by August 31 depending on cooperation from the Taliban.

China has had effective communications and negotiations with the Taliban, and Kabul is a key platform and channel for the two sides to discuss all kinds of important affairs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Wednesday.

Wang made the remarks while answering a reporter's question about a reported meeting between Taliban officials and the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan in Kabul on Tuesday.

The spokesperson stressed that China's policy toward Afghanistan is consistent and clear, and reassured that the country would always respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, follow the principle of non-interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs and adhere to the friendly policy for all the Afghan people.

China respects the Afghan people's independent choice of their own future, supports the implementation of the "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned" principle, and stands ready to continue to develop good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation with Afghanistan and play a constructive role in Afghanistan's peace and reconstruction, Wang stated.

China's ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council says foreign forces should be held accountable for human rights violations in Afghanistan. Chen Xu was speaking at the council's special meeting on Afghanistan. He said China is ready to cooperate with Afghanistan and help with its reconstruction. Chen also urged all parties to ensure an inclusive political framework that can benefit all Afghans. He expressed hope that the Taliban will fight terrorism and ensure a smooth power transition.

Russia will use four military transport aircraft to evacuate more than 500 citizens from Afghanistan, RIA Novosti news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

By order from Russian President Vladimir Putin, the ministry will organize the evacuation of over 500 citizens of the Russian Federation, Collective Security Treaty Organization member states and Ukraine from Afghanistan, according to the report. 

China Media Group's correspondent has interviewed residents in Kabul who spoke of the rising prices of daily necessities and called on the Taliban to provide work and education opportunities for young people.

The United States has evacuated more than 4,000 American passport holders plus their families from Afghanistan in the ongoing airlift from Kabul, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.

There was a delay in reporting the figures because U.S. officials were focused on getting people out of Kabul as quickly as possible, the official said.

"We expect that number to continue to grow in the coming days," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly Afghan civilians, have been evacuated from Kabul in the last week following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. 

Satellite images show the chaos and traffic outside of the airport, and the relative clams and ordered military evacuation taking place within the secured perimeter.

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The United Nations has vowed to remain in Afghanistan and continue its work towards peace and development.

Aid workers say Afghans need their help now more than ever, but that the deteriorating situation “could erase hard-won development progress over the past 20 years.”

CGTN’s Sarah Walton reports.

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The Pentagon said on Tuesday that the U.S. will not extend evacuation timetable into September but additional bases may need to house evacuees from Afghanistan. 

The Taliban, an Islamic movement that spent the past two decades fighting against the Western-backed government in Kabul, are once again the dominant military and political force in Afghanistan.

They have tried to present a moderate and pragmatic image since taking over the capital on August 15 by declaring a general amnesty for all government officials and pledging to form an inclusive government, protect women's rights and not to allow Afghan territory to be used "against anybody or any country in the world."

What will the Taliban 2.0 administration look like? An analysis of the group's leadership structure and its history may give some clues.

Click here for more:

Graphics: The evolution of the Taliban

In response to a question from CGTN, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said China is a good neighbor of Afghanistan and the new government of Afghanistan will further develop good relations with China.

- Taliban said it will not extend August 31 deadline of foreign countries' evacuation and that the U.S. should pull out all troops and contractors before the deadline.

- Taliban said the U.S. should stop taking skilled Afghans like engineers out of Afghanistan and called on the Afghans not to leave. 

- The Taliban spokesperson refused to confirm the secret meeting between the CIA chief and the Taliban leader, saying he's not aware if the two had met.

- Taliban said Afghan media outlets are now operational again, so are hospitals, schools, universities and local governments.

- The spokesperson said they're trying to come up with a procedure so women can return to work. Currently, female government workers are asked to stay home until security allows.

- Taliban also said security issues will be resolved all across Afghanistan and there's no list of people targeted for reprisals.

Foreigners ought to be evacuated by the end of August and there is no room for extending the August 31 deadline of U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday. 

This was the second press conference that the Taliban held after their takeover of the Afghan capital. 

In the backdrop of chaotic scenes and casualties at Kabul airport as Afghans scrambled to flee the country, Mujahid urged the people at the airport to go home and their security will be guaranteed. He said they were no longer allowing Afghan nationals to go to Kabul airport because of the chaotic situation there.

The Taliban had previously promised "safe passage" to Kabul airport for civilians.

Blaming the U.S. for chaos at the airport, the spokesman said the U.S. kept on inviting people to the airport to board evacuation planes. He urged the U.S. not to encourage Afghans to leave the country. "We need their talent," he added.

The United States should withdraw all troops and contractors by the existing August 31 deadline, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday.

Afghan citizens will not be allowed to leave the country via the ongoing U.S. evacuation process after the deadline, he told reporters. 

European nations have said they would not be able to airlift at-risk Afghans before the August 31 cut-off, and United States President Joe Biden has faced calls from all corners to extend the evacuation window.

"They have planes, they have the airport, they should get their citizens and contractors out of here," said Mujahid.

As he spoke, Western troops were working to get foreigners and Afghans onto planes and out of the country.

The spokesperson said the crowds of Afghans thronging Kabul airport seeking a flight out of the country could go home. "We guarantee their security," he said, adding that there was no list of people targeted for reprisals. "We have forgotten everything in the past."

Since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on August 15, security has returned to the war-torn Afghanistan and all big cities including the capital city Kabul have remained peaceful. The spokesperson said media outlets are working and the freedom of the media is improving every day. He said the Taliban are trying to come up with a procedure so women can return to work. 

Panjshir is the only one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces that remains out of the Taliban's control.

Mujahid said the Taliban want to resolve the Panjshir situation through dialogue. He said they have been endeavoring to settle the standoff with Panjshir's anti-Taliban forces through talks.

The spokesperson also said the Taliban don't want foreign embassies to close or stop work and they have assured them of security.

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – were due to meet virtually later on Tuesday to discuss the Afghanistan situation.

(With input from agencies)

U.S. military and coalition flights evacuated 21,600 people from Kabul, Afghanistan in a 24-hour period since early Monday, a White House official said on Tuesday.

The official said 37 U.S. military flights carried approximately 12,700 evacuees and 57 coalition flights carried 8,900 people.

The flag of Afghanistan was incorporated in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games opening ceremony on Tuesday to signify "solidarity and peace."

Afghan athletes pulled out of the Games due to cancellation of flights from the country. 

A Chinese envoy on Tuesday said American, British and Australian forces must be held accountable for violating human rights in Afghanistan during the past 20 years. 

"It must be pointed out that the United States and a few other countries, under the pretext of democracy and human rights, conducted military interventions in sovereign states, imposed their own models on countries with different history, culture, and national conditions," Ambassador Chen Xu, head of the Chinese Mission to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said.
  
"Such acts have seriously undermined the sovereignty and territorial integrity of those countries and brought severe disasters to their people. This indeed is a profound lesson," he added. 

Read more: 

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Chart of the Day: Casualties and refugee numbers from the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan

Facts Tell: What Australian soldiers did in Afghanistan

U.S.-led foreign forces, including those from the UK and Australia, invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and overthrew the Taliban's rule. After the foreign troops began their final withdrawal from Afghanistan in May, conflicts between Taliban fighters and Western-backed government forces escalated, with the Taliban taking control of Kabul on August 15.

As of April, an estimated 241,000 people had lost their lives as a direct result of the two-decade war in Afghanistan, including tens of thousands of civilians, according to the Costs of War Project run by the Watson Institute of Brown University. 

Last year, Australia's Chief of the Defense Force General Angus Campbell said there was credible evidence that his special forces unlawfully killed at least 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners. 

"It has been proven again that power politics and military means lead nowhere, which will only undermine regional security and stability and violate the human rights of local people," Chen said. 

The ambassador said China respects the will and choice of the Afghan people and the country's sovereign independence and territorial integrity. China will never interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs and will always pursue a friendly policy toward all Afghans, he stressed. 

The most urgent task for Afghanistan is to restore peace, stability and order, Chen said. He called on the Taliban to follow through its positive remarks on forming an open and inclusive government and protecting women's rights. He also urged the group to adopt "moderate and prudent" domestic and foreign policies and curb all kinds of terrorist and criminal acts.

(Cover: U.S. soldiers stand guard as Afghan people wait at Kabul airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 16, 2021. /CFP)

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has announced on Twitter that a press conference will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Kabul.

It's the second Taliban press conference since the group took back control of the Afghan capital. 

William Burns, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, met with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The meeting is believed to be the first face-to-face encounter between a senior U.S. official and the Taliban since they took over Kabul last week. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have exchanged views on the situation in Afghanistan in a telephone conversation, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

The two leaders agreed to establish a permanent channel for bilateral consultations on Afghan developments, it added.

Airbnb will begin housing 20,000 Afghan refugees around the world for free, the company's Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky has announced on Twitter.

"The displacement and resettlement of Afghan refugees in the U.S. and elsewhere is one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time. We feel a responsibility to step up," he said.

Chesky said he hopes other business leaders will be inspired to do the same. 

The Taliban have appointed a new finance minister and an acting interior minister as well as officials in Kabul, the Pajhwok Afghan News agency reported on Tuesday.

The agency reported that Gul Agha is Afghanistan's new finance minister and Sadr Ibrahim is the acting interior minister. It added that Mullah Shirin will be the governor of Kabul province and Hamdullah Nomani the mayor of the capital.

No other details were immediately available. 

(With input from Reuters)

Britain's Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Tuesday it is "unlikely" evacuations from Afghanistan will be extended beyond August 31 as Group of Seven (G7) leaders prepare to meet virtually to discuss the crisis. 

The UK will chair the emergency talks among G7 leaders later on Tuesday, at which U.S. President Joe Biden will face pressure to extend the end-of-month deadline to evacuate thousands seeking to leave Afghanistan. 

The Taliban have said they will reject any demands by Western forces to extend the deadline to allow more time to complete the evacuation operation. 

Biden said on Sunday that he would not like to extend the deadline for evacuations, but the talks were ongoing. 

Read more: 

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Graphics: The evolution of the Taliban

Wallace told Sky News he was doubtful there would be an extension "not only because of what the Taliban said but also if you look at the public statements of President Biden." 

But he added, "It is definitely worth us all trying, and we will." 

Wallace said if Western forces do not leave by the deadline the Taliban could attack the airport or prevent people from arriving. 

"If that airport gets attacked then effectively it closes down, mortar fire onto the runway etc, and then you are left with a very big humanitarian problem," he said. 

Britain has evacuated around 8,600 people from Afghanistan in last two weeks, including 2,000 people in the last 24 hours, Wallace said.  

But he said given the limited time before the evacuation window closes, "we're not going to get everybody out."

Meanwhile, France said it will end its evacuation missions in Afghans later this week if the U.S. presses on with its plan to pull all troops out of the country at the end of the month. 

"For us ... that means that our operation ends Thursday evening. So we have three days left," Nicolas Roche, the chief of staff for Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, told French Prime Minister Jean Castex. 

Read more: 

Chart of the Day: Casualties and refugee numbers from the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan

The 20-year war in Afghanistan: What happened and what's next?

Conflicts between Taliban fighters and Western-backed government forces escalated after U.S.-led foreign troops began the final stage of their withdrawal from Afghanistan in May. As the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, the U.S. and some other countries intensified efforts to evacuate their diplomats and other nationals as well as Afghans who want to leave the country. 

A Taliban spokesman warned on Monday that the group would not agree to any extension of the August 31 deadline, calling it a "red line" for withdrawing troops. 

"If the U.S. or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations – the answer is no. Or there would be consequences," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News. 

In an interview with CGTN on Monday, Shaheen said any delay in the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan "would be a clear violation" of the departure agreement. 

(With input from AFP, Reuters)

(Cover: Afghans board a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 23, 2021. /CFP)

Imposing sanctions and exerting pressure will not solve the Afghan issue and only prove to be counterproductive, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Tuesday as plans emerged to push world leaders at the upcoming G7 meeting to consider new sanctions on the Taliban.

"Afghanistan is an independent and sovereign country. The United States and its allies should learn from the lessons of history, reflect and act prudently on issues related to Afghanistan," Wang said. 

He called on the international community to encourage the development of the Afghan situation in a positive direction, support peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan, improve people's livelihood and well-being, and enhance its capacity for self-development. 

While the international community is promoting a smooth transition and a national reconstruction process in Afghanistan, China believes it is also necessary to think about how to prevent the recurrence of military intervention in other countries under the banner of democracy, he noted.  

"We should not let the tragedy of individual countries making mistakes, only to have the Afghan people and the international community, especially regional countries, foot the bill, be repeated," Wang said.

Commenting on U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris's anti-China remarks in Singapore, Wang said what is happening in Afghanistan at the moment clearly tells people what is the so-called rules and order that the United States is talking about.

"In order to defend 'America first,' the U.S. can arbitrarily smear, suppress, coerce and bully other countries without paying any price. This is the order the U.S. wants," he said.

Wang accused the U.S. of hiding behind rhetoric of a rules-based global order to defend its own "bullying and hegemonic behaviors." "But who will believe them now?" he questioned.

Hundreds of Afghan refugees are staying at a college campus in the U.S. state of Virginia as they await relocation to a more permanent destination.

After arriving at Dulles International Airport Friday night, refugees spent the night at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, news outlets report.

A college spokesperson said the refugees will stay at the campus anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Many refugees are destined for Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, Fort Bliss in Texas and Fort Lee in Virginia.

The Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management set up more than 500 cots in ballrooms and community rooms. As word of the refugees' arrival spread, volunteers from the region's Afghan community brought food, clothes, toiletries and other supplies and offered service as interpreters.

Some refugees described how they had to leave other family members behind. A man who fled with his 18-month-old son had to leave his wife and daughter behind because they lacked the proper paperwork.

Many who spoke to reporters declined to give their names for fear that their family members in Afghanistan would face retaliation.

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The Taliban has made it clear that it does not expect the U.S. to violate its agreement to withdraw all troops by August 31.

Speaking to CGTN's Beatrice Marshall on Monday, Taliban Spokesperson Mohammad Suhail Shaheen said any delay "would be a clear violation" of the withdrawal agreement.

Shaheen noted that any delays in the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan would only work to disrupt reconstruction plans.

He said the Taliban was keen to bring an end to foreign occupation of the country.

Shaheen urged the U.S. to instead "participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan because they were involved in destruction of Afghanistan."

The Taliban is optimistic ongoing negotiations will result in the formation of an Afghan inclusive Islamic government, Spokesperson Mohammad Suhail Shaheen said in an interview with CGTN.

Having made a swift takeover of the Afghan capital, Kabul, earlier this month, the Taliban entered into talks with other political groups and individuals over the possible formation of a new government.

In Monday's interview with CGTN's Beatrice Marshall, Shaheen outlined that the main focus of the talks was on getting all political groups and personalities to be part of Afghanistan's new era.

China on Monday blamed the United States for failing to honor its commitments of peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.  

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin termed the U.S. "the major cause and the biggest external factor in the Afghan issue." 

"It cannot simply walk away. The United States has pledged multiple times it would help Afghanistan maintain stability, prevent chaos and help with its peace and reconstruction. But we've seen constant media reports of the U.S. doing dishonest things, showing no bottom lines," said Wang. 

"We hope the United States matches its words with its actions, taking up its responsibilities on the Afghan issue, and honoring its commitments over Afghanistan's development, reconstruction and humanitarian aid," he added.

Expressing hope for the prompt restoration of economic and financial order after the end of war, Wang said China will continue to support peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan and do its best to facilitate socioeconomic development.

Inclusive government

"We hope Afghanistan can form an open, inclusive and broad-based government; uphold moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies; and respond to the shared aspiration of the Afghan people and the international community," Wang said, commenting on the Taliban's stated plan to announce a new government structure soon.

The spokesperson also said that China is highly concerned about the security of Chinese institutions and personnel in Afghanistan. He said the Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan is still operating normally and most Chinese citizens have safely returned home with the help of the embassy.

As for the few people who chose to stay in Afghanistan, Wang said the embassy has kept close contact with them and asked relevant Afghan parties to take concrete measures to ensure their safety.

Wang added the Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan had issued a number of security reminders. "Chinese citizens in Afghanistan who have not yet reported to the embassy are requested to report their current addresses, itineraries and contact information of themselves and their relatives in China," he urged.

The Taliban will not accept any extension of the August 31 deadline for the Western forces to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and a delay will bring consequences, Sky News reported on Monday, citing a Taliban spokesperson.

"You can say it's a red line," spokesman Suhail Shaheen said in an interview.

The Taliban have appointed Haji Idrees as acting governor of Afghanistan's central bank, their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told leaders in Central Asia on Monday it was vital to avoid any spillover of radical Islamism into the region from Afghanistan and to keep Islamic extremists at bay, the Kremlin said.

Putin made the comments at an extraordinary meeting of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on the Afghan situation. 

He told regional leaders that it was important to keep a close eye on the Afghan drug trade, according to the Kremlin. 

At the meeting, Putin and Central Asian leaders voiced concerns that ISIL still had a foothold in Afghanistan and was a threat, the Kremlin said.

The leaders agreed to coordinate joint action on Afghanistan, it added.

Putin on Sunday criticized the plan of some Western countries to relocate refugees from Afghanistan to neighboring Central Asian countries while their visas to the U.S. and Europe are being processed. 

(With input from Reuters)

The Taliban have extended an "amnesty" to former Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, Sputnik reported on Monday citing the Taliban official Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani.

Japan will send three Self-Defense Forces planes to Afghanistan to evacuate Japanese nationals and local staff who worked for the Japanese embassy and other organizations, the top government spokesperson said on Monday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the government will send one C-2 transport aircraft to Afghanistan on Monday and two C-130s on Tuesday for the evacuation mission.

Singapore will offer the United States the use of A330 multi role tanker transport (MRTT) aircraft to help evacuations in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday.

Lee made the remarks during a press conference with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is visiting Singapore. 

A firefight broke out between Afghan security forces and unknown assailants at the north gate of Kabul airport on Monday, the German Bundeswehr said on Twitter.

One Afghan security force member was killed and three others were injured in the battle, which also involved U.S. and German forces, the Bundeswehr said. 

Foreign forces in Afghanistan have not sought to extend the August 31 deadline they set for leaving the country, Reuters cited a Taliban official as saying on Monday. 

U.S. President Joe Biden last week said the August 31 deadline might have to be extended to allow U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan to evacuate Americans.

The decision on sanctions against the Taliban will depend on their conduct, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday. 

When asked if he would support the sanctions, which has been considered by the British government, Biden said yes. "It depends on the conduct," he added. 

The president once again pushed back against critics who questioned his timing about pulling American forces from Afghanistan.

Biden reiterated that the 20-year war has already left 2,448 Americans dead and 20,722 wounded and cost 300 million U.S. dollars a day. "Either increase the number of forces we keep there and keep that going, or I end the war. I decided to end the war," he said.

- Talks on the formation of a new government with Afghan political leaders are underway and that a new government will be announced in the near future, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Sunday.

- The Taliban has set up a three-member committee in Kabul to address media problems, said its spokesperson in the Qatar office. 

- Countries continued efforts evacuating their nationals. Belgium on Sunday evacuated 250 people from Afghanistan to Pakistan's Islamabad, said Minister of Defense Ludivine Dedonder. Turkey was able to help 357 citizens return to Istanbul, Anadolu news agency said.  

- Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the country will not take in people fleeing Afghanistan during his chancellorship, according to local broadcaster Puls 24. Kurz said Austria has taken in over 40,000 Afghans in the past few years, which he said was a "disproportionately large contribution."

The U.S. Department of Defense on Sunday activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet to assist in the massive evacuation of people from Kabul, Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the nation last week.

Six commercial airlines who are members of the Fleet have been ordered to provide passenger airplanes for the evacuation of U.S. citizens and personnel, Special Immigrant Visa applicants, and others at-risk.

A total of 18 planes have been called: Four from United Airlines; Three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air and Omni Air; and two from Hawaiian Airlines.

The passenger planes will be used to further transport people from interim staging bases outside of Afghanistan to safe locations. They will not fly into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

This is only the third time in the history of the program that it has been activated. It was first activated during Operations Desert Shield/Storm from 1990-1992 and the second was during Operation Iraqi Freedom 2002-2003.

Before the program was established in 1951, commercial airlines had been widely used during WWII.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III "greatly appreciates" the support of the airlines, the Pentagon said in a statement.

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Ahmad Massoud, the son of former anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, said he will not surrender areas under his control to the Taliban, Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel cited him as saying on Sunday.

Massoud called on the formation of a comprehensive government to rule the country with the participation of the Taliban, warning that war will be "unavoidable" if the Taliban refuse dialogue, the TV channel said.

He has so far assembled a fighting force of around 9,000 people in a resistance movement, the National Resistance Front (NRF), also known as Panjshir Resistance, against the Taliban, according to AFP.

The anti-Taliban force gaining strength in northeast Afghanistan's Panjshir has claimed to have taken control over Pul-e-Hesar, Deh Salah, and Banu.

Earlier, NRF spokesperson Ali Maisam Nazary told AFP that the group's main goal is to avoid further bloodshed in Afghanistan and press for a new system of government, but it also prepared for conflict, and if the Taliban do not negotiate they will face resistance across the country.

The Taliban have reportedly reached out to Russia for help to mediate with the resistance force.

Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov said on Saturday that a senior member of the Taliban's political leadership has asked Russia to tell fighters in the Panjshir Valley that the Taliban hope to reach a political agreement to settle the situation there.

The diplomat says the Taliban claim they don't want bloodshed in the region.

(With input from agencies)

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that the leaders of the Group of  Seven (G7) would meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. 

"I will convene G7 leaders on Tuesday for urgent talks on the situation in Afghanistan. It is vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis, and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years," he tweeted.

The UK currently occupies the chair of the grouping of wealthy nations comprising Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, and Johnson has been pushing for a meeting for the past week.  

The Western allies have faced mounting criticism over their handling of the crisis in Afghanistan amid chaotic scenes as thousands of Afghans and foreigners try to flee Kabul following the hardline Islamist group's return to power.  

Following a virtual meeting Thursday, G7 foreign ministers urged the Taliban to provide safe passage for those trying to flee the capital, the bloc's first formal statement on the crisis. 

The U.S., which has sent thousands of troops temporarily to try to secure the airport and help evacuate its nationals and Afghans who helped them, has set a deadline to complete the airlifts by August 31. 

However, allies including the UK have suggested they would support extending the deadline, an issue likely to feature prominently at Tuesday's discussion.

(With input from AFP)

(Cover: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the press conference on the final day of the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK, June 13, 2021. /VCG)

The chief of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday called on member states and partners to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, urging them to avoid interfering in Afghan internal affairs as the Taliban took over the country last week.

OIC Secretary-General Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen made the appeal in his opening speech at an emergency meeting on Afghanistan on Sunday afternoon. 

He said he hoped all parties in Afghanistan could reach an agreement as soon as possible on the formation of an inclusive government.

According to the communique released after the meeting, the 57-member organization said it would seek to help achieve peace in Afghanistan and to facilitate evacuation operations from the country. 

The Saudi Arabia-based organization also affirmed that it stands with Afghanistan at this critical juncture. 

Recalling the severe suffering and hardship Afghanistan and its people went through due to protracted conflict and violence, the OIC stressed that efforts need to be directed towards the development and the welfare of the people.

"The meeting reaffirmed the OIC's full commitment to support the Afghan-led and owned peace process and comprehensive reconciliation to reach a comprehensive and lasting political solution and ensure the support of this process by the main neighboring countries and the international community," the communique read.

The OIC also called on the future Afghan leadership and the international community to ensure that Afghanistan is never again used as a platform or haven for terrorists and not allow terrorist organizations to have a foothold there. 

(Cover: The OIC holds a special meeting to discuss the situation in Afghanistan in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, August 22, 2021. /OIC )

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said that the situation in Afghanistan directly affects Russia's security, according to RIA news agency. 

Russia does not want Afghan militants arriving under the cover of refugees, Putin added.

Putin criticized the idea of some Western countries to relocate refugees from Afghanistan to neighboring Central Asian countries while their visas to the United States and Europe are being processed. 

"Does that mean that they can be sent without visas to those countries, to our neighbors, while they themselves (the West) don't want to take them without visas?" TASS news agency quoted Putin as telling leaders of the ruling United Russia party. 

"Why is there such a humiliating approach to solving the problem?" he said. 

Putin said Russia, which allows visa-free travel for residents of ex-Soviet Central Asian countries, opposes that. 

"We don't want militants showing up here under cover of refugees," TASS cited Putin as saying. 

While some Western nations scrambled to evacuate people from Afghanistan, Moscow praised the Taliban for restoring order following its takeover of the country. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Taliban leaders had stuck to their promises so far. 

"We are seeing the statements the Taliban made about ceasing combat actions, an amnesty for all of those involved in the confrontation, about a need for a nationwide dialogue ... they are being implemented," he was cited by RIA as saying.  

Lavrov said the Taliban had started contacts with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai. 

At least 20 people have died in the past seven days in and around the Kabul airport during the evacuation efforts, a NATO official told Reuters on Sunday.

"The crisis outside the Kabul airport is unfortunate. Our focus is to evacuate all foreigners as soon as we can," the official, who sought anonymity, told Reuters. "Our forces are maintaining strict distance from outer areas of the Kabul airport to prevent any clashes with the Taliban."

U.S. President Joe Biden and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed two military bases in southern Spain can be used to receive Afghans who have worked for the U.S. government, the Spanish government said on Sunday. 

The two bases, Moron de la Frontera near Seville and Rota near Cadiz, will be used for refugees from Afghanistan until their travel to other countries is arranged. 

A plane carrying 110 Afghan refugees and their families arrived at a Spain-based European Union hub at a military base outside Madrid on Saturday night.

As fears of a migrant influx following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan grow, the EU has called on member states to resettle Afghan refugees and promised financial support from Brussels.

(With input from agencies)

An Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 aircraft on Sunday evacuated 168 people from Afghanistan, Indian Foreign Ministry officials said. Of the 168 passengers, 107 were Indian nationals.

"Evacuation continues!" wrote Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on social media. "IAF special repatriation flight with 168 passengers onboard, including 107 Indian nationals, is on its way to Delhi from Kabul.”

On Saturday morning a special IAF flight evacuated over 85 Indian nationals from the Afghan capital.

Officials said the Indian government was working closely with the United States, whose forces control interior sections of the Kabul airport, to facilitate the return of its stranded citizens. 

Taliban commanders are set to meet former governors and bureaucrats in more than 20 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces over the next few days to ensure their safety and seek cooperation, a Taliban official has told Reuters.

"We are not forcing any former government official to join or prove their allegiance to us, they have a right to leave the country if they would like," the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

"We are seeking complete clarity on foreign forces' exit plan," the Taliban official added. "Managing chaos outside Kabul airport is a complex task." 

The Taliban on Sunday blamed the U.S. for the airport chaos, according to an AFP report.

"America, with all its power and facilities... has failed to bring order to the airport. There is peace and calm all over the country, but there is chaos only at Kabul airport," said Amir Khan Mutaqi, a Taliban official. 

The U.S. forces now control interior sections of the Kabul airport.

Australia has evacuated hundreds more people from Afghanistan, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Sunday.

Morrison said the Australian Defense Force evacuated more than 300 people on four flights overnight.

Passengers included Australian citizens and Afghan visa holders for Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and the UK.

Australia has now evacuated approximately 550 people from Kabul since the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban.

Seven people have died in chaotic scenes near Kabul airport as crowds of civilians tried to flee Afghanistan, Sky News reported Sunday citing the British Ministry of Defence. 

The report added that the British ministry issued a statement on Sunday saying that "conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible." 

Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass has arrived at Kabul airport to help with the evacuation and relocation of U.S. citizens and Afghan personnel working for the United States, local media reported on Saturday.

A senior Taliban member Mullah Ahmadullah Wasiq has said that the group has no plan to shape any other kind of government but a permanent one, Afghan news agency the Khaama Press reported Saturday.

The Taliban member added that negotiations over the upcoming government have been expedited. 

The U.S. military is establishing "alternative routes" to the Kabul airport due to threats from the terror group ISIS-K at the airport and its surroundings, CNN reported on Saturday citing a U.S. defense official. 

U.S. President Joe Biden met with senior officials Saturday to discuss the Afghan situation and the counter-terrorism operations, the report said.

"There is a strong possibility ISIS-K is trying to carry off an attack at the airport," CNN quoted a U.S. defense official as saying.

The Taliban announced on Saturday that its delegation met with political figures in the Afghan capital Kabul, assuring them of security and safety.

"A delegation from the Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan met with a number of political figures in Kabul today," tweeted Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Political Office of the Taliban in Qatari capital Doha.

According to the spokesman, the delegation told the attendees about the future of the "Islamic Emirate," the name of Afghanistan under Taliban rule, which wants a strong central government that respects the rule of law and gives every citizen the opportunity to serve his country.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan discussed the situation in Afghanistan during a phone call and agreed to strengthen bilateral coordination on Afghan issues, the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday. 

The presidents emphasized the priority was counter-terrorism and efforts to tackle drug trafficking, the Kremlin said.

Hashmat Ghani, brother of ousted Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, pledged allegiance to the Taliban, multiple Afghan media outlets reported on Saturday.

The United States advised Americans in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to Kabul airport on Saturday as thousands try to flee the country, the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan said in a travel advisory.

"Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so," said the advisory.

The chaos at the airport was not the responsibility of the Taliban, an official from the group told Reuters, adding, "the West could have had a better plan to evacuate." 

Switzerland postponed a charter flight from Kabul because of the chaos, its foreign ministry said. 

"The security situation around Kabul airport has worsened significantly in the last hours. A large number of people in front of the airport and sometimes violent confrontations are hindering access to the airport," the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. 

The Taliban completed their sudden advance across the country as U.S.-led forces pulled out, coinciding with what German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday was the "breathtaking collapse" of the Afghan army. 

Images circulated on social media this week of Afghans rushing towards a U.S. C-17 transport plane and clinging to its side. A separate video showed what appeared to be two people falling from a military plane as it flew out of Kabul. 

Since then, crowds have grown at the airport where armed Taliban have urged those without travel documents to go home. At least 12 people have been killed in and around the single runway airfield since Sunday, NATO and Taliban officials said.

(With input from Reuters)

Almost twenty years after allied forces were first deployed to Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in New York, the Taliban are back in charge.

Since the U.S. Forces' withdrawal and the Afghan army's apparent collapse, the group has managed to take back control of the country at a speed that shocked the world.

This week on The Agenda, Stephen Cole considers what the past week's events really mean for the people of Afghanistan, for the wider region, and for the rest of the world.

General Richard Barrons, former Commander of the British Army's Joint Forces Command, served in Afghanistan and joins the program to give his view on how this all happened so quickly, and what the impact on future western military policy might be.

The new leaders of Afghanistan have insisted that they will honor women's rights "within the norms of Islamic Law." But as Farzana Elham, Afghan MP and women's rights campaigner tells Stephen, that promise isn't making her feel very safe.

And, as the world watches images all too reminiscent of previous U.S. failures in Vietnam and Cambodia, Stephen speaks to award-winning journalist Jim Laurie – the only U.S. reporter to remain in Saigon after its fall in 1975 – about how events in Kabul might impact America's military and diplomatic image across the world.

FIND MORE STORIES FROM THE AGENDA WITH STEPHEN COLE HERE

Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council and Hamid Karzai, former Afghan President, on Saturday met with Abdul Rahman Mansour, the acting Taliban governor of Kabul. They discussed the priority of protecting people's lives and property, TOLO News reported.

The acting governor pledged to "do everything possible for the security of the people," said the report.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Moscow on Saturday, saying one of the most pressing issues is security, especially in light of the events developing in Afghanistan, according to the Kremlin.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) leaders will meet next Monday via video conference to discuss the developments in Afghanistan, added Putin at the meeting.

The CSTO is a Russia-led military alliance created in 1992, grouping the six former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, with the aim of safeguarding peace and stability in Eurasia.

Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov said that Russia's embassy continued to operate normally. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in an interview with the newspaper Izvestia emphasized the need to resolve the situation in the country through peaceful dialogue, Tass reported.

Kazakh Foreign Ministry, in turn, stated that Kazakhstan called for the creation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan, respect for the rights of ethnic minorities and women and compliance with international law.

Putin and Tokayev last met in person in Moscow on June 2020. They have held over ten telephone conversations since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Taliban have not kidnapped any foreigners, although some of them are being questioned before being allowed to leave Afghanistan, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing an anonymous Taliban's official. 

Taliban official Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani on Saturday met with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in Kabul, former prime minister of Afghanistan, also the leader of the Hizb-e-Islami, Pajhwok Afghan News reported.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, political chief of Afghanistan's Taliban, arrived in Kabul on Saturday for talks with fellow members of the group and other politicians on establishing a new Afghan government, reported AFP citing a senior Taliban official.

From the "Vietnam Syndrome" in the last century to the "Afghanistan Syndrome" today, facts have repeatedly shown that military intervention leads nowhere. The U.S. should reflect on its wrong policy of belligerence and forsaking commitments, think seriously about its responsibilities for the world and stop undermining world peace and creating instability, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday.

Former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on Friday said that formal talks between the Afghan political leaders and the Taliban will start once the Taliban leaders arrive in Kabul, reported TOLOnews. 

He said the recent meetings were informal meetings. 

There are indications that the Taliban wants to establish an inclusive government in Afghanistan, said Hekmatyar. 

Hekmatyar also added that violence against Afghan civilians at Kabul airport is not acceptable.

As Western nations struggled to ramp up the pace of evacuations from Afghanistan, U.S. President Joe Biden confronted criticism over the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the Taliban's swift takeover of the country.

"I have seen no question of our credibility from our allies," Biden told reporters after making a speech from the White House. "As a matter of fact, the exact opposite I've got... we're acting with dispatch, we're acting, committing to what we said we would do."

Thousands of desperate Afghans clutching papers, children and a bit of belongings thronged Kabul airport where gun-toting Taliban members outside urged those without travel documents to go home. In and around the airport, at least 12 people have been killed since Sunday, NATO and Taliban officials said.

U.S. evacuation flights from Kabul's airport stopped for more than six hours on Friday while U.S. authorities looked for countries willing to accept people fleeing Afghanistan. The flights resumed later in the day.

In his remarks, Biden referred to the 169 Americans transported by the military. Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby later said the decision was made to use the helicopters on Thursday because the group was unable to get to the gate from a nearby hotel to the airport.

"The plan was simply (for them) to walk through the gate, but there was a large crowd established outside the Abbey gate, a crowd that not everybody had confidence in, in terms of their ability to walk through and so local commanders on the scene took the initiative and flew these helicopters out there to pick them up," Kirby said.

Biden insisted every American who wanted to would be evacuated, and that about 18,000 people had been airlifted out since July.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg described the situation outside Kabul airport as "very dire and difficult," as several member countries pressed for evacuations to continue beyond an August 31 U.S. deadline.

Biden has not backed off that deadline, despite calls – internationally and at home from his fellow Democrats as well as opposition Republicans – to keep troops in Afghanistan as long as necessary to bring home every American.

Biden said he could not predict what the final outcome would be in Afghanistan, where the United States and allies have waged a 20-year war. But he promised to work with other countries to set "harsh conditions" for any cooperation or recognition of the Taliban, based on their human rights record.

On Saturday, a Taliban official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the group is aiming to unveil a new governing framework for Afghanistan in the next few weeks.

The framework would not be a democracy by Western definition, but "It will protect everyone's rights," the official added.

The Taliban have sought to present a more moderate face since last week's lightning takeover, despite their previous history of ruling with an iron fist from 1996 to 2001 before being toppled by U.S.-led forces for sheltering al Qaeda militants behind the September 11 attacks.

The official added that the group will also be accountable for its actions and will investigate reports of reprisals and atrocities carried out by members, Reuters reports.

"We have heard of some cases of atrocities and crimes against civilians," the official said. "We can understand the panic, stress and anxiety. People think we will not be accountable, but that will not be the case." 

"If Talibs (members) are doing these law and order problems, they will be investigated." 

(With input from Reuters)

Afghanistan's economy is "shaped by fragility and aid dependence" and its biggest economic challenge is "finding sustainable sources of growth," according to the World Bank.

About 75 percent of the country's annual public spending is financed by international donations,  the World Bank reported before the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan has always attracted resources. But yes, there is a question mark right now because of the political situation — how that's going to affect the generosity of donors," said Mustapha Ben Messaoud, chief of field operations at UNICEF Afghanistan.

Access to funds 

(Click left or right arrow to see more)

With the collapse of the Afghanistan government, foreign financial assistance is uncertain.

Last week, German, one of the country's biggest donors, said  it would stop aid if the Taliban took over the country by force.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced to block Afghanistan's access to lender's resources, including about $440 million in new monetary reserves, due to "lack of clarity within the international community" over recognizing a government in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the United States has frozen nearly $9.5 billion in assets stored in the U.S. belonging to the Afghan central bank and stopped dollar shipments to the nation. The move aims to block the Taliban's efforts to gain access to the funds.

Afghanistan's currency fell to a record low on Tuesday with over 86 per dollar due to a combination of  political instability and a shortage of currency supplies.

Employment

(Click left or right arrow to see more)

The security concern and severe corruption problems in Afghanistan led to weak foreign business investments.

The private sector in Afghanistan is very narrow, according to the World Bank. Employment is concentrated in low-productivity agriculture, and more than 60 percent of households earn some income from farming.

The illicit economy including opium production, smuggling, and illegal mining also takes a significant share of employment. The opium production has been an important source of revenue for the Taliban.

Afghanistan produced 80 to 90 percent of global opium output, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The country has a near-monopoly on opium and heroin.

"We are assuring our countrymen and women and the international community, we will not have any narcotics produced," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday at a first press conference since the Taliban took power.

"From now on, nobody's going to get involved (in the heroin trade), nobody can be involved in drug smuggling," he added.

The Taliban also pleaded for "international assistance" to provide farmers with alternative crops to poppies.

However, international efforts to break Afghanistan's reliance on poppy farming over the past 10 years didn't have much success. Those efforts included paying farmers to grow wheat or saffron, investing in transport links, as well as spraying defoliants on crops and bombing refining facilities, according to France24.

Experts still doubted if Afghanistan could become a "narcotics-free country" under the Taliban.

Mineral Reserves

(Click left or right arrow to see more)

As one of the poorest nations in the world, nearly 90 percent of the population in Afghanistan is living on less than $2 a day. But the country's mineral reserves are estimated to be worth up to $3 trillion, with enormous deposits of gold and industrial metals, according to CNBC.

It has one of the world's biggest deposits of lithium, an essential material for electric batteries and other clean technologies that are vital to cut carbon emissions. But exploiting it requires much greater investment, technical knowledge, and time.

"If Afghanistan has a few years of calm, allowing the development of its mineral resources, it could become one of the richest countries in the area within a decade," Said Mirzad of the U.S. Geological Survey told Science magazine in 2010. He led the Afghanistan Geological Survey until 1979. 

Minerals now generate $1 billion in Afghanistan per year and about 30 to 40 percent has been siphoned off by corruption, warlords and the Taliban, according to Mosin Khan, a former Middle East and Central Asia director at the IMF said.

Foreign investment was hard to come, as many global businesses and investors are committed to higher environmental, social and governance standards.

There's a chance for the Taliban to develop the mining sector, but it must prioritize its manpower and efforts on dealing with security and humanitarian issues, according to Rod Schoonover, a scientist and security expert who founded the Ecological Futures Group.

"Functional governance of the nascent mineral sector is likely many years away." said Joseph Parkes, Asia security analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.

The world is watching the Afghanistan situation closely. During the Taliban's first press conference, the spokesperson expressed its willingness to build sound relations with other countries. But the future of the country depends on the actions and policies of the Taliban.

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NATO has called on the Taliban to form an inclusive government including women and ethnic minorities.

Foreign ministers from the Alliance, which played a leading role in supporting the government that was overthrown this month, said they would not allow the country to once again become a terrorist haven.

"Any future Afghan government must adhere to Afghanistan's international obligations; safeguard the human rights of all Afghans, particularly women, children, and minorities; uphold the rule of law; allow unhindered humanitarian access; and ensure that Afghanistan never again serves as a safe haven for terrorists," a statement from the ministers said.

Read more:

Afghans abroad call for support

Will international terrorists return?

How Europe reacted to Taliban

A Taliban spokesman yesterday reiterated to CGTN Europe a promise to allow women to continue their education and work and vowed not to persecute former opponents.

Suhail Shaheen blamed false rumors by the group's enemies for sparking a chaotic exodus towards Kabul's international airport, currently controlled primarily by U.S. troops evacuating their citizens and some refugees.

WATCH: CGTN EUROPE'S EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE TALIBAN

Michael Semple, a former EU envoy to Afghanistan, said the idea that the Taliban would form an inclusive government after years of refusing to share power, was completely unrealistic.

"It's impossible, it's not going to happen," he told CGTN's Global Business Europe program, noting that senior religious figures would take all the key positions in the new administration.

WATCH: MICHAEL SEMPLE INTERVIEW

NATO ministers called for the evacuation of nationals of its members and "at-risk" Afghans to be allowed to continue amid reports of Taliban checkpoints restricting access to the airport.

In a more humble tone, the statement promised a reflection on the role of the organization in Afghanistan, where it had spent almost two decades training and equipping the armed forces only to see them overturned in a matter of weeks by Taliban militia.

Cover image: Francisco Seco/AP 

Editor's Note: On August 12, the Taliban's rapid advance and seizure of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city, took the country (and the world) off guard. Fear gripped Afghans as a repeat of the Taliban's tumultuous rule may once again become a reality. But as an eerie calm settled in the city in the days that followed, some welcomed the return of the Taliban and the sense of security and change they may bring after 20 years of war.

On the evening of August 12, we were sitting at home when there was a sudden tremor – a bomb exploded near our house. We then went to our garage and stayed there for the whole night. For a moment I thought I would die and everything was over. I said to myself: no more education, no more life, I will die now.

That was the worst night in my life. That entire night was spent in shock and fighting.

The next morning, we heard that Kandahar was taken over by the Taliban.

That morning, the entire city was quiet. People all stayed at home, scared.

It was August 13 that the Taliban released a voice clip of one of their leaders in their media message group, saying that everything was normal now, and that everyone can come out of their houses and go back to work. The Taliban said they were not forbidding people from doing things.

Now it's calm Kandahar. On August 18, I went to a bazaar and found everything was as normal. People came out to do their own jobs. And so far, we haven't heard any news of death since the Taliban came. Things are getting back to normal. The bazaar is as normal as the other days.

In fact, I feel the situation in Kandahar is even better than before. Because Kandahar is one of the cities where the intense war took place, so in the past, we would hear bomb blasts and news about killings and deaths every day. Not it's better, because we need peace, we need comfortable life, we need happy life. And because of this hope, we feel it's better now. Many people are happy because they think the war is over and they will live safely.

Some of the districts in Kandahar were captured by Taliban years ago but the Taliban only came to the center of Kandahar recently. Before they arrived, people were scared that we might go back 20 years. But we were surprised because it seems that their plans and policies have changed. Before, they used to beat women and force them or bully them, but now it's not like that.

But still, many people are hesitant to welcome the Taliban. Because in their minds Taliban is still like 20 years ago. And they think there will be war again. And these people would like to judge Taliban by their actions not by their words.


Family members of many former government officials on Thursday said their relatives have disappeared or are being held by the Taliban since the arrival of the Taliban on Sunday, Afghanistan media TOLOnews reported.

The report said the former governor and the former police chief of Laghman Province surrendered to the Taliban five days ago, but they are still in Taliban custody, citing relatives.

In war, people always pay the highest price. Since the U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban in 2001, an estimated 241,000 people have lost their lives. 

They have included military and armed forces from the different warring factions, but also civilians, journalists and aid workers.  

Hundreds of thousands more civilians have died due to hunger, disease and injury caused by the devastating war. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, Afghanistan remains amongst the "deadliest places in the world to be a civilian."

Among civilians, women and kids were not spared from death, injury and disease. A UN report showed 2020 marked the highest number of women and children casualties recorded in a single year since 2009.

A new round of displacement 

UN humanitarian agencies in May warned that they were bracing for another round of displacement in Afghanistan as U.S. and NATO forces began withdrawing troops and the Taliban gained territory, 

Afghanistan has a population of some 35 million people, but millions are internally displaced. Millions more have had to seek safety beyond the country's borders over the years, with the majority living in Iran and Pakistan as refugees. Afghans remain the world's third-highest forcibly displaced people after Syrians and Venezuelans. 

"Now more than ever, we need to stand by displaced Afghans who have borne the cost of years of conflict, and assure them that they have not been forgotten," Indrika Ratwatte, Asia-Pacific director for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said in a statement last month.

"It is the responsibility of all international actors to continue working with Afghanistan to secure a lasting peace, and to continue supporting countries hosting Afghan refugees," he added.

On Tuesday, the UNHCR urged countries not to repatriate vulnerable Afghan nationals, even those who may have had asylum requests rejected.

"In the wake of the rapid deterioration and the security and human rights situation in large parts of the country and the unfolding humanitarian emergency, UNHCR calls on States to halt possible returns of Afghan nationals who have previously been determined not to be in need of international protection," spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said in a statement.

Several countries and organizations have reached out to Taliban leaders for help in evacuating their nationals or employees from Kabul, Reuters reported citing a Taliban official on Friday.

The official said that the Taliban cadres are allowed to accompany Afghan civilians entering mosques for weekly Friday prayers.

More than 18,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul airport since the Taliban took over the Afghanistan capital, a NATO official told Reuters on Friday.

However, crowds continued to throng outside the airport, desperate to flee, said the official, who declined to be identified.

U.S. President Joe Biden held phone conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday to discuss developments in Afghanistan.

Biden and Macron noted the importance of continued close coordination among "allies and democratic partners" on Afghanistan, including through multilateral fora, on the provision of humanitarian assistance and support for refugees.

The U.S. has airlifted about 7,000 people out of Afghanistan since the evacuation mission started on August 14, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

In the past 24 hours alone, over 2,000 people were evacuated on C-17 aircraft, about 300 of whom were Americans.

More than 5,200 U.S. troops are now at Kabul airport to guard the evacuation, as well as armed fighter jets flying over Kabul to ensure security for the evacuation operation.

But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Thursday that he doesn't know how many U.S. citizens are still left in Afghanistan.

(With input from agencies)

The Group of Seven (G7) on Thursday sought to secure close cooperation in personnel evacuation and the resettlement of refugees as chaos continues at the Kabul airport amid the hasty withdrawal of the U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan and the Taliban's swift takeover of the country.

The foreign ministers of G7 countries Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, as well as the high representative of the European Union, met online Thursday and "spoke about the gravity of the situation and the significant loss of life and internal displacement in Afghanistan over recent days," according to a statement issued by British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in his capacity as the chair of the meeting.

"G7 Ministers support the statement of the UN Security Council on August 16, and affirmed our commitment in particular to the urgent need for the cessation of violence, respect for human rights including for women, children and minorities, inclusive negotiations about the future of Afghanistan," it said.

Following the Taliban's takeover over the weekend, scenes of chaotic evacuation at the Kabul airport and desperate Afghans who fell from the sky after clinging to U.S. military planes taking off shocked the world. 

Thousands of Afghan nationals and local support staff of the United States and its allies are still left stranded in Afghanistan, waiting to be evacuated. 

The latest development came as the rift between Washington and its European allies seemed to have widened over the Afghan crisis. 

On Tuesday, French daily Le Monde said "Europeans were trapped in hasty American withdrawal". British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace said last Friday that the U.S. decision to pull its military forces out of Afghanistan was a "mistake". 

The G7 will continue efforts to evacuate vulnerable persons from Kabul airport and call on all parties to facilitate that, the ministers concurred during Thursday's meeting, which set the stage for a virtual meeting of G7 leaders on the Afghan situation early next week. 

British Home Office has introduced a "bespoke" resettlement plan, promising to take in up to 20,000 Afghans "in the long-term," with some 5,000 in the first year. The plan was considered far from enough to deal with the Afghan crisis by British lawmakers who met for an emergency parliament session on Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said he was ready to speak with the Taliban himself "when it is clear with whom should I speak, for what purpose." For now, U.N. officials in Kabul have been in close contact with the Taliban, he added. 

Guterres said the Taliban's desire for international recognition is the Security Council's only leverage to press for inclusive government and respect for rights, particularly for women, in Afghanistan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi respectively on Thursday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

Putin and Macron noted the importance of ensuring the safety of civilians and addressing pressing humanitarian challenges, the Kremlin said in a press release.

They expressed willingness to help establish peace and stability in Afghanistan through cooperation, including efforts within the framework of the United Nations Security Council and the Group of 20.

Days after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, thousands of civilians are still being evacuated from the country and many, many more are desperate to leave. 

People like Zemar Sakha, who left Afghanistan years ago and made their home elsewhere, look at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country with anxiety and heartbreak.

Sakha left Afghanistan 36 years ago for London, UK, where he owns a carpet shop. But he left family back home – loved ones, whose futures now look uncertain and worrying under the Taliban.

"I hope people hear the voice of Afghan people somehow, somewhere. They really need help, there's a disaster, every minute, every hour of the day," he says.

In the UK, parliament has been called into an emergency session called to debate the situation – and the country's involvement in the two decades-long war in Afghanistan.

In the face of the current situation in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the decision made by the UK government back in 2001. 

"The United Kingdom, among others, joined America in going into Afghanistan on a mission to extirpate al-Qaeda in that country and to do whatever we could to stabilize Afghanistan, in spite of all the difficulties and challenges we knew we would face. And we succeeded in that core mission," he told parliament.

Sakha, like many critics of the withdrawal, thinks Western forces played a role in destabilizing the country to the point it allowed an easy return for the Taliban.

"Look, they have to support us any way they can because they are part of the problem, all the West is involved in this problem, all of the West," says Sakha.

The UK has agreed to take 20,000 Afghan refugees in the coming years, with 5,000 set to arrive this year.

_{Cover image: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP}

The international community should encourage Afghans toward a positive direction instead of exerting more pressure as the situation is still unstable and the country faces uncertainties, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday.

A Foreign Ministry statement said Wang made the remarks during a phone call with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab that stressed China's willingness to continue to play a constructive role on the Afghanistan issue under the premise of non-interference in its internal affairs. 

Read more: After taking control of Afghanistan, what lies ahead for Taliban?

Wang said the major change in the situation in Afghanistan reflects that after more than 40 years of war, the Afghan people yearn for stability and do not want another war or chaos. 

It also shows that the governance model imposed from the outside has not been supported by the Afghan people, and lacks a social foundation, Wang said, adding that relying on military intervention to solve regional hotspot issues will lead nowhere. 

The situation in Afghanistan is yet another negative example, and if the United States does not learn from the painful lessons, it will suffer new ones, Wang said. 

He noted that as the Afghan issue has entered a critical stage from military to political settlement, the next aspects should be focused on, first, whether the Taliban can unite the Afghan people, establish an open and inclusive political structure in line with the country's conditions, pursue moderate policies, and avoid triggering new conflicts or even a civil war. 

Second, whether Afghanistan can draw a clear line from terrorism, resolutely crack down on all kinds of terrorist organizations and avoid becoming a gathering place for terrorists again. 

Third, whether the international community could play a constructive role. Wang said the international community should fully respect the independence and sovereignty of Afghanistan and the will of its people, conduct more dialogue and provide more guidance, refrain from a predetermined mindset and exceeding one's duties to meddle in others' affairs, and not turn Afghanistan into an arena of geopolitical games. 

The Chinese senior official stressed that the international community should encourage and guide the country in a positive direction. This, said Wang, is conducive to the early political transition by the Taliban and other political forces in the country, the stabilization of the domestic situation in Afghanistan, and the reduction of the impact of refugees and immigrants. 

China-UK ties

Wang said that there were some positive signs recently at the low ebb of China-Britain ties and China agreed with a remark by Raab that it should be cooperation, rather than divergence, that defines bilateral relations. 

Wang added the premise of cooperation between countries is mutual respect, especially in each other's path of development and core concerns. In the meantime, the mutually beneficial cooperation should be carried out openly and inclusively so as to gradually enhance stability and foreseeability in the bilateral relationship, he said. 

Cooperation against COVID-19 

Wang emphasized that solidarity remains the top priority of all countries in the fight against COVID-19 and origins tracing is a scientific issue that should not be kidnapped by politics, adding that it is also unacceptable to ignore or even overturn the conclusions and suggestions of the joint China-WHO study report because of political needs. 

He said China is willing to continuously enhance communication with the British side in fields related to vaccine, treatment and origins tracing so as to jointly contribute to the safety of human health. 

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics 

Wang pointed out that a "pan-political" trend is witnessed frequently in the international community recently as some even attempt to "politicize" sports and hype up "boycotting" the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, adding it is a serious violation of the Olympic Charter and athletes' rights. 

He said that adding "together" to the Olympic motto reflects a correct direction for the Olympic cause, and China welcomes British athletes to have better performances in the Beijing Winter Olympics. China, together with other countries of the world, is willing to host a simple, safe and wonderful Winter Olympics. 

The foreign ministry statement said Raab congratulated Chinese athletes on their impressive results achieved at the Tokyo Olympics, agreeing that sports should not be politicized. He said the British Olympic Committee will make an independent decision on the participation of British athletes in the Beijing Winter Olympics. 

Similarly, the UK also believes that international anti-pandemic cooperation should not be politicized, Raab said, adding that Britain is ready to develop positive bilateral relations with China, and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in the fields of economy, finance, and health. 

Raab agreed that the international community should sum up the experience and lessons of the Afghanistan issue and the country should not become an epicenter of terrorism again. 

The international community should cooperate on the issue of Afghan refugees, Raab said, noting that Britain has announced that it will take in 20,000 Afghan refugees and is ready to increase humanitarian and development assistance to Afghanistan in support of the United Nations in helping the neighboring countries of Afghanistan to accept Afghan refugees. 

Britain and China can strengthen coordination on the Afghan issue, Raab said. 

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover: Taliban fighters patrol in Herat after taking over the city, Herat, Afghanistan, August 18, 2021. /CFP)

Reporters from China Media Group (CMG) had a close look at Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid while attending the group's first press conference held in Kabul on Tuesday. 

The press conference began almost 40 minutes after the scheduled start time of 6:30 p.m.

Journalists from Western countries were in attendance, but there were no microphones from Western media outlets on the podium as Mujahid spoke, CMG reporters said.

As Mujahid took his seat, which formerly belonged to Dawa Khan Menapal – the head of the Afghan government's media and information center who was assassinated by the Taliban earlier this month – it marked the first time he had revealed his face to the public. 

The world had heard Mujahid's voice for many years, since he sometimes called reporters, but he rarely appeared in front of the camera.

Though he often spoke in Afghanistan's official language Pashto, his reactions during the press conference showed he has an understanding of English.

Mujahid repeated "one" during the press conference to remind reporters that each of them could only ask one question, though he didn't answer questions in English. 

Besides, Mujahid repeated at least four times during the press conference that media from countries outside Afghanistan should be given more chances to ask questions.

The spokesperson reacted quickly and actively when answering questions, CMG reporters said, but his answers showed that the Taliban were not fully prepared, as they had taken control of the country so quickly. Also, he was somewhat vague when asked about women's rights under Taliban rule, saying the group will allow women in the country to work and study based on Islamic law.

When an Afghan reporter asked the spokesperson his thoughts on Menapal's death, Mujahid hesitated a bit but calmed immediately, saying: "Families of Taliban members have also suffered disasters. It's unfortunate, but it's part of war."

Russia favors a national dialogue involving all of Afghanistan's political forces, and welcomes the Taliban's recent statement that they are ready for such dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Thursday issued a statement on the 102nd anniversary of Afghanistan's independence from British occupation. 

The statement, posted on Mujahid's Twitter account, was inscribed the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," a name that the group has used to refer to itself in official communications.

"Declaration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on the occasion of the 102nd anniversary of the country's independence from British rule," the spokesperson wrote on Twitter.

The statement said that they are honored to celebrate the independence day at the moment the Taliban have defeated the U.S. and forced them to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Appreciating all the Afghan people for helping the country become independent once again, the Taliban also pledged that they will reconstruct the country under the Islamic system.  

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani claimed on Wednesday night that he was forced to leave Kabul and decided to leave his country in order to prevent bloodshed.

Ghani made the statement, addressing his compatriots in their native language Pashto, during a live Facebook broadcast from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Ghani said, "If I had stayed, I would be witnessing bloodshed in Kabul."

He also issued a rebuttal against his critics who said he left Afghanistan hastily, saying that "those who think that I fled should not judge if they don't know all the details."

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday it suspended Afghanistan's access to its resources, including around $440 million in new monetary reserves, due to a lack of clarity over the country's government after the Taliban seized control of Kabul.

"There is currently a lack of clarity within the international community regarding recognition of a government in Afghanistan, as a consequence of which the country cannot access SDRs or other IMF resources," an IMF spokesperson said in a statement.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday in an interview with ABC News that he did not see a way to withdraw from Afghanistan without "chaos ensuing."

Biden, who is facing mounting criticism from the public over the chaotic evacuation, defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in the interview.

He also said that the U.S. military could extend its mission in Afghanistan beyond August 31 to evacuate Americans on the ground.

Afghanistan's Ashraf Ghani is in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf state's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

"The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds," it said in a statement.

The EU, U.S. and 18 other countries issued a joint statement on Wednesday saying they were "deeply worried about Afghan women and girls." 

"We call on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to guarantee their protection," read the statement.

"We in the international community stand ready to assist them with humanitarian aid and support, to ensure that their voices can be heard," the bloc and countries said.  

Seventeen people were injured on Wednesday in a stampede at a gate to the airport in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Reuters reported, citing a NATO security official, as Western countries stepped up the evacuation of their diplomats and others.

On August 16, Afghan residents gathered around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul after the Taliban took control of the capital. They were trying anxiously to enter the airport and flee Kabul. A local man followed his younger brother to the airport to encourage him to return home. However, he could not find his brother. "Those who came from foreign countries, they destroyed our country, and left us alone. They have left with all our property," he said.

Ajmal Ahmady, governor of Afghanistan's central bank, on Tuesday described the chaos at Kabul's airport as he left the country following the takeover by the Taliban. Ahmady said he made it on board with no possessions and only one shoe. He termed the experience "very surreal."

A member of the Taliban's political office, Anas Haqqani, has met former Afghan president Hamid Karzai for talks, TOLOnews reported citing sources on Wednesday.

Karzai was accompanied by Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, in the meeting, according to the report. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday Britain would do everything it could to avert a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan where he described the capture of the country by the Taliban as happening faster than expected.

Addressing parliament, which was recalled to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, Johnson also ruled out an inquiry into British conduct in the nation, saying most questions had already been looked into.

Britain has managed to remove around 1,000 people a day from Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, interior minister Priti Patel told the BBC.

"We have been getting out approximately 1,000 people, so far, a day," she said. "We're still bringing out British nationals... and those Afghan nationals who are part of our locally employed scheme."

As the Taliban take control of the presidential palace in Afghan capital Kabul, shops are reopening and witnessing a surge in prices. Local residents are hoping to see the Taliban "put down their weapons to ensure the country's peace and stability so the people could live peacefully."

The White House acknowledged Tuesday that the Taliban had amassed a significant amount of U.S. military equipment after its takeover of Afghanistan following two decades of war with American forces. 

Pictures and videos have shown the Taliban with firearms and vehicles that Pentagon troops used or provided to the Afghan national security forces, as well as advanced UH-60 Black Hawk attack helicopters and other equipment at the Kandahar airport. 

"We don't have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone. But certainly, a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban," said White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. 

The U.S. military has evacuated more than 3,200 people from Afghanistan so far, including 1,100 on Tuesday alone, a White House official said. 

"Today, U.S. military flights evacuated approximately 1,100 U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, and their families on 13 flights," the official said, adding "Now that we have established the flow, we expect those numbers to escalate." 

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said that the 3,200 who had been taken out of the country so far included U.S. personnel, and that nearly 2,000 Afghan "special immigrants" have been relocated to the United States.  

The U.S. government on Sunday froze Afghan reserves held in its U.S. bank accounts to prevent the Taliban from accessing, the Washington Post reported citing sources. 

"Any Central Bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban," an administration official told the newspaper in a statement.

The Afghan Central Bank had $9.4 billion in reserve assets by end of April, data from the International Monetary Fund showed.

U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed Afghanistan on Tuesday and announced a virtual summit of the G7 leaders on the crisis, the White House said. "They agreed to hold a virtual G7 leaders' meeting next week to discuss a common strategy and approach," the White House said in a statement. 

This was the first phone call between Biden and a foreign leader since the startling weekend takeover by the Taliban of Kabul.

Britain on Tuesday announced plans to welcome up to 5,000 Afghans fleeing the Taliban during the first year of a new resettlement program that will prioritize women, girls and religious and other minorities. 

In the long term, the program aims to assist up to 20,000 people.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said on Tuesday that the priority in Afghanistan is to evacuate as many people as possible, including NATO personnel and locals who have helped the organization as well as people in vulnerable situations.

"What we have seen in the last few weeks was a military and political collapse at a speed which had not been anticipated ... It was a surprise, the speed of collapse, and how swiftly that happened," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference. 

Stoltenberg said NATO should make an honest assessment of what led to the "swift and sudden" collapse of the Afghan government and armed forces against the Taliban.

Several countries, including the United States and its Western allies, have been scrambling to evacuate diplomats and civilians since the Taliban's advances last week, with troops being sent to assist the effort. 

The Taliban told Washington that it will provide safe passage for civilians to reach the airport in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday.

(With input from Xinhua and Reuters)

The European Union (EU) foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday that there are many lessons to be learned over Afghanistan and the Taliban's takeover, adding that the EU will have to talk with the Taliban as it has won the war. 

"The Taliban have won the war, so we will have to talk with them," Borrell said after an emergency video conference of EU foreign ministers Tuesday afternoon, adding that this does not mean moving quickly to officially recognize the Taliban's government.

What do we know about the finances of the Islamic fundamentalist group of about 80,000 fighters?

Primary sources of Taliban funding according to a UN report are: Drug trafficking, extortion & ransom, mineral exploitation, tax collection and donations.

Estimates of annual income range from $300M to $1.6B.

What will happen to the women in Afghanistan?

Many inside the country and around the world are questioning what life will be like a second time under Taliban rule. 

The Taliban says they will keep women’s rights within "the limits of Islam," but what does that mean?

Under Taliban authority in the 1990s women couldn't work, go to school, be seen in public without a male escort, had to cover themselves completely, and follow other strict rules. 

If they disobeyed, women faced severe punishments, including public beatings and executions. 

After the recent Taliban takeover, one shop in Kabul saw a rise in burqa sales, reports CNN.

People in Afghanistan are scared and some women are choosing to stay home.

The Taliban has not given specifics on what respecting women's rights within the framework of Islam will entail.

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The Taliban’s takeover of the Afghan capital, Kabul, has sparked concern and anger from some members of the country’s diaspora living in the United States, as has President Biden's statement standing squarely behind the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. 

CGTN's William Denslow reports

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The Taliban did not want to have any internal or external enemies, and intended to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said here on Tuesday.

At its first press conference since the Taliban's takeover of most parts of Afghanistan on Sunday, the group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said they do not want any internal or external enemies, and they want to have good relations with everybody to develop the economy and achieve prosperity.

"Afghanistan will have a strong, Islamic government," he said.

The spokesman promised to ensure the safety of people who worked with the United States and allied forces, adding that those whose families were waiting at the Kabul airport would be safe if they returned homes.

He said Afghanistan's interactions with foreign countries would continue, and the Taliban would use the country's natural resources for reconstruction.

Afghanistan will be drug-free if the international community provides alternative crops for the country, he added.

"All borders are under Taliban's control."

He also said the Taliban will allow women in Afghanistan to work and study based on the Islamic law, and they will be offered with all rights within the Islamic principles, because women are vital parts of the society.

A day after scenes of chaos at Kabul airport and the Taliban asserting control over Afghanistan and its capital, a spokesperson has given a press conference to explain the extremist group's aims and plans. 

Zabihullah Mujahid said the group would protect women's rights (with the potential caveat of Islamic law), that it would give an "amnesty" to those who worked against the Taliban in the past and that it would not allow Afghanistan to be used by terror groups such as Al-Qaeda. 

Mujahid said the Taliban would not let Afghanistan "be used against anybody," which is widely understood to mean terrorist groups will not be allowed to stay in the country. 

"We are not going to allow our territory to be used against anybody or any country in the world. So the whole global community should be assured that we are committed … that you will not be harmed," he added.

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The spokesperson also claimed the group would not seek revenge killings, which have been part of much of the conflict in Afghanistan over the past 40 years. 

"Nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors," he said. "We don't want any internal or external enemies," Mujahid added. "Nobody is going to be treated with revenge."

Asked what role women would play in the new Taliban-led society, Mujahid said they would be "active." However, he added this meant "within the framework of Islam," which has worried many around the world who have lobbied for women's rights in the country. 

Women were subjugated under the Taliban between 1996 and 2001, with access to work and education heavily restricted. 

Finally, the spokesperson said the Taliban wants media to "remain independent," but also warned journalists to "not work against national values."

"You in the media should pay attention to [our] shortcomings so we can serve the nation. But the media should not work against us ... They should work for the unity of the nation," Mujahid declared.

The Taliban said in a news conference on Tuesday that they want peace in the war-torn country and that they would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.

The news conference was the first by the group since it took over the capital, Kabul, forcing out President Ashraf Ghani's government.

"We don't want any internal or external enemies," Al Jazeera quotes the movement's main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

The group previously announced an "amnesty" and called on women to join its government, hours after chaotic scenes at the Kabul Airport as thousands of people desperately attempted to flee the capital.

(With input from agencies)

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said there will be no fight in Afghanistan from now on, no elements that created unrest, and the Taliban do not consider anyone an enemy.

The Taliban held their first press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday.

There will be no fighting in Afghanistan from now on, no elements that create unrest, and the Taliban do not consider anyone an enemy, said Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.

Women can work and study based on Islamic principles, he added.

Afghan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh said he became "legitimate caretaker president."

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on the Taliban on Tuesday to facilitate the departure of all those who want to leave Afghanistan, adding that the world will be watching and must continue to support a "stable and peaceful" Afghanistan.

In a press conference held two days after the Taliban took control of Kabul, the NATO chief blamed the Afghan leadership for the collapse of government forces and loss of the capital. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as Taliban fighters closed in on Kabul. 

"Ultimately, the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and to achieve the peaceful solution that Afghans desperately wanted," Stoltenberg said. "This failure of the Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today." 

He said NATO has suspended all support to the Afghan government. 

Read more: 

Live updates: Uncertainty reigns as Taliban return to power in Afghanistan

Wang Guan: Afghanistan is one of U.S.' biggest foreign policy fiascos

Conflicts between Taliban fighters and Afghan government forces escalated after U.S.-led foreign forces began the final stage of their withdrawal from the country in May. As the Taliban took control of Kabul on Sunday, the United States and some other countries intensified efforts to evacuate their diplomats and other nationals.

"NATO has been working around the clock to maintain operations at the Kabul International Airport," Stoltenberg said, after a meeting of senior NATO diplomats from alliance members.   

"Around 800 NATO civilian personnel have remained to provide key functions under very challenging circumstances, including air traffic control, fuel and communications," he added. 

The Taliban have ordered their fighters to maintain discipline and not enter any diplomatic buildings or interfere with embassy vehicles, a senior official of the group said on Tuesday. 

"Taliban members have been ordered at all levels to ensure that we don't disrespect any country's presence in Afghanistan," said the senior official, who declined to be identified. 

Stoltenberg also urged the Taliban to prevent Afghanistan from lapsing back into being a breeding ground for terrorism. 

"Those now taking power have the responsibility to ensure that international terrorists do not regain a foothold," he told reporters in Brussels. 

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson intends to hold a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven leaders at the earliest to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, his office said after he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday.

Turkey has welcomed the "positive messages" to the international community given by Taliban fighters following their seizure of power in Afghanistan, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.

"We welcome the positive messages given by the Taliban to foreigners, diplomatic missions and their own population," Cavusoglu said in televised comments. 

The Taliban declared a general amnesty for all government officials on Tuesday and urged them to return to work, two days after taking control of Kabul following a lightning sweep through Afghanistan.  

"A general amnesty has been declared for all ... so you should start your routine life with full confidence," the Taliban said in a statement. The group also urged women to join its government. 

As normality returns to the Afghan capital, military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from the country also resumed early on Tuesday after the runway at Kabul airport was cleared of thousands of people desperate to flee. 

Read more:  

Live updates: Uncertainty reigns as Taliban return to power in Afghanistan

Special coverage: Afghan tension in process

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the situation in Kabul was completely under control and law and order returned to the city.  
  
Mujahid reiterated that lives and properties of people were safe as there are reports that the Taliban arrested about 200 people involved in looting of government properties and vehicles. 
  
The Taliban leadership has ordered its members and "once again instructs them that no one is allowed to enter anyone's house without permission. Life, property and honor of none shall be harmed but must be protected," Mujahid said.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have ordered their fighters to maintain discipline and not enter any diplomatic buildings or interfere with embassy vehicles, a senior official of the group said on Tuesday. 

"Taliban members have been ordered at all levels to ensure that we don't disrespect any country's presence in Afghanistan," said the senior official, who declined to be identified.

The offices of the Afghan Public Health Ministry and the Kabul municipality were reopened on Monday. Wahid Majrooh, acting minister of public health, appeared together with Taliban public health representatives in a televised footage, urging medical workers to return to their jobs, including female medical employees. 
  
Small shops were also reopened around Kabul whereas banks and business centers mostly remained closed as of Tuesday morning.

Read more: 

Afghanistan exposes consequences of U.S. policy of endless war

Wang Guan: Afghanistan is one of U.S.' biggest foreign policy fiascos

Taliban on Monday took control of the outside of Kabul airport while thousands of U.S. forces were inside the airport helping evacuate the crowds. 

At least 10 Afghans were reportedly killed in the stampede and a shooting inside the airport within the past two days. Media reported two people fell to their deaths from the underside of a U.S. military aircraft after it took off, crashing to their deaths on roofs of homes near the airport. 

Late on Monday, military transport planes resumed operation and dozens of flights were conducted throughout the night, according to residents living around the airport. 

The number of civilians at the airport had thinned out, a Western security official at the facility told Reuters on Tuesday. "Many people who were here yesterday have gone home," the official said. 

Read more: 

China says respects Afghan people's choice amid changing situation

Chinese envoy urges Taliban to live up to its counter-terrorism commitments

Conflict between Taliban fighters and Afghan government forces escalated after U.S.-led foreign forces began the final stage of their withdrawal from the country in May. Taliban fighters entered Kabul on Sunday evening after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.  

With the end of the war, Taliban's political chief Abdul Ghani Baradar said on Sunday that the real test of governing effectively would begin now. A Taliban spokesman said the Afghan people will soon learn what form the new government will take. 

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday that China encourages Afghanistan to establish an open and inclusive political framework in accordance with its own national situations. 

In a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Wang said China stands ready to communicate with the United States to push for a soft landing of the Afghan issue, so that a new civil war or humanitarian disaster will be prevented in Afghanistan and the country will not relapse into a hotbed and shelter for terrorism. 

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: Taliban fighters pose for a photo in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 16, 2021. /CFP)

Two Afghan athletes' dream of taking part in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which open on August 24, was broken as the Taliban took over Kabul over the weekend and closed the country's borders.

The Afghanistan Paralympic Committee's London-based Chef de Mission Arian Sadiqi told Reuters on Monday that taekwondo athlete Zakia Khudadadi and athletics competitor Hossain Rasouli would not be able to attend the Games.

Khudadadi, 23, would have been the first female athlete from Afghanistan to take part in the Paralympics.

"Unfortunately due to the current upheaval going on in Afghanistan the team could not leave Kabul in time," Sadiqi said.

The International Paralympics Committee confirmed the news on Monday. "Regrettably, NPC (National Paralympic Committee) Afghanistan will no longer participate in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games," International Paralympic Committee (IPC) spokesman Craig Spence was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

"Due to the serious ongoing situation in the country, all airports are closed and there is no way for them to travel to Tokyo."

Sadiqi said he had been due to fly to Japan on Monday while Khudadadi and Rasouli were scheduled to arrive in Tokyo on Tuesday.

In an article posted on the IPC's website last week, Khudadadi was quoted as saying she was thrilled to have been selected to take part in the Paralympics.

"I'm so happy," she said. "I just want to be there with the other athletes from the world and give my best. It is an opportunity to show my ability and I will be so proud to stand with all of those athletes."

Rasouil, 24, added, "It is a dream to participate at Tokyo Games and I want to win a medal for the country."

Speaking to Reuters on Monday, Sadiqi said he was "heartbroken" the two athletes would not be able to compete in Tokyo.

"This would have been the first female Afghan taekwondo player to take part. This was history in the making," he said, adding that "it would have been a very great achievement for Afghanistan as a whole."

Khudadadi "was excited to take part" and "would have been a great role model for the rest of the females in the country."

"I'm still in a state of shock. It's unbelievable really," he added.

Afghanistan first took part in Paralympics in 1996 and has never won a medal at the event. But Sadiqi said the stigma previously attached to people with disabilities had begun to lift in the last few years, with Afghan para athletes competing in national and international competitions.

"There was a great improvement within the federation itself and within the Afghan Paralympic Committee… There was a lot of progress in terms of participants, athletes taking part, as slowly, people's interest was building up towards the Paralympics and para athletes."

He feared that with the return of the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan until 2001, "(we're) going back to square one."

"Previously during the Taliban era... people couldn't compete, couldn't participate, especially female athletes," he said, adding the situation was now "very unpredictable."

"I can't really say for sure how it would look like for the future. I can only guess and say that it doesn't look good. It doesn't look good at all."

(With input from Reuters)

Editor's note: Hannan Hussain is a foreign affairs commentator and author. He is a Fulbright recipient at the University of Maryland, the U.S., and a former assistant researcher at Islamabad Policy Research Institute. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

U.S. platitudes about power-sharing in Afghanistan, its dangerous experimentation with regime support and divisive campaigning on upholding civilian liberties, all came crumbling down on August 15 as Afghanistan's twice-elected president Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and the Taliban took control of the presidential palace in Kabul.

The militants' refusal to entertain nothing but a complete handover of power underlines the extent to which the U.S. occupation locked government negotiators out of any peacemaking leverage and shot prospects of a credibly sustained transitional administration down to the ground.

For all the talk about Washington fighting tooth and nail to stabilize Afghanistan, its present attempts to escape accountability from a self-initiated invasion delivers a death blow to all that the U.S. ever read as peace in Afghanistan – the past, present and future combined.

The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a CNN interview on August 15, said that "the President [Biden] was prepared, for every contingency. We had those [U.S.] forces on hand and they were able to deploy very quickly [...] to make sure that we could move out safely and securely as the situation on the ground changed."

This preferential focus on protecting U.S. assets at all costs ignores several fundamental truths, beginning with the fact that the violent shift in Afghanistan's on-ground "situation" was virtually ensured by the U.S. itself. In the time that the Taliban's aggressive nationwide offensive earned near total control in Afghanistan, Washington remained laser-focused on coordinating contingencies for its diplomatic operations, and attaching a degree of sensitivity to its withdrawal baggage as if lost in the haze of foreign occupation.

All the while, Washington kept operating with a far superior understanding of future security risks than the Afghan military could ever muster.

Cautious optimists could be forgiven for arguing that a delayed U.S. military withdrawal could have led to relatively different consequences for Afghanistan, including better conditions for a transitional arrangement to gain traction in Kabul.

All that assumes Afghanistan's interests are a central priority for Washington when it makes a decision. I challenge that assumption: the priority that the U.S. administration claims to have given to the people of Afghanistan.

Look no further than the Biden administration's decision to beef up its troops' presence in Afghanistan. The central determination was to aid the evacuation of Americans and those deemed valuable to Washington, which has recognized the urgency to pull its citizens out of the same violent conditions that the U.S. has forced upon Afghan men, women and children.

Given the apparent ineffectiveness of Washington's proposal of forming a transitional government in Kabul, other possible outcomes merit attention. Notwithstanding the importance of a buffer time before the Taliban's takeover, talks have been hamstrung by Ghani's exit and undercut further by the Taliban's refusal to agree to anything short of a victory of their self-identified "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan." 

The U.S. – having consistently claimed such power-sharing stalemate is avoidable – bears direct responsibility for the current crisis culminating in Kabul. For too long, Washington's seasonal pivot towards inclusive governance and negotiated settlements has been predicated on the assumption that the Taliban is willing to "move urgently to the tasks" of signing a permanent ceasefire agreement and establishing an inclusive government as opposed to its Islamic Emirate blueprint.

That assumption was never true. Now the same Taliban fighters face zero compulsion in agreeing with the interim government proposal, given that the credibility and pace of power-sharing planning stand exhausted by the U.S. in the closing stages of its 20-year occupation.

Thus, moving the goalposts on Afghanistan's stability is precisely what has run the U.S.-backed Ghani government to the ground and pushed the Taliban to the gates, and compressed widely deserved citizen liberties to a standard never promised.

American officials must truly reckon with the reality that the Taliban is at their strongest at any time since 2001, and thus, the U.S. is very wise to depart. It is Washington's two-decade occupation that has empowered the Taliban beyond modern precedent.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)

Indian embassy officials in Kabul, including the ambassador, are being evacuated from the Afghan capital, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry in New Delhi said on Tuesday.

"In view of the prevailing circumstances, it has been decided that our ambassador in Kabul and his Indian staff will move to India immediately," spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Twitter.

UN humanitarian agencies and their partners continue to deliver relief to more than 17,500 displaced people in Kabul despite challenges from the Afghanistan crisis, a UN spokesman said on Monday.

"In the past month, 17,500 people have been identified as newly internally displaced," said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "Most of the displaced people arriving in recent days are reported to have arrived from Ghazni and Logar provinces."

Some 13,500 of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) received food, cash, health care, household items, and water and sanitation support, said Dujarric, adding that inter-agency teams were deployed around Kabul to assess humanitarian needs.

"Despite immense challenges, humanitarian organizations – both the UN and non-governmental organizations – in Afghanistan are committed to delivering aid and services to millions of people in need while adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence," he said.

Read more: 
Casualties at chaotic Afghan airport as Taliban take control in Kabul

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest Flash Update on Afghanistan that assessment teams had to shut down their operations Sunday afternoon "due to uncertainty of the situation in Kabul."

People's immediate needs continue to be shelter, household items, food, sanitation, hygiene kits, provision of health services and drinking water, said the office.

The spokesman noted the secretary-general's report on children and armed conflict in Afghanistan released last week, saying an additional 5,770 boys and girls were killed and injured in the country between January 2019 and December 2020.

Child casualties for the first half of 2021 constituted the highest numbers of children killed and maimed for this period ever recorded by the UN in Afghanistan, a situation compounded in the last few weeks and days, Dujarric said.

He said the $1.3 billion humanitarian response plan for Afghanistan remains just 38 percent funded, leaving a shortfall of almost $800 million.

Military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan started taking off on Tuesday morning, a Western security official at Kabul airport told Reuters.

The airport runway and tarmac, which had been overrun on Monday by thousands of people desperate to flee from the Afghanistan capital, are now clear of crowds, the official said.

U.S. forces, which are in charge at the airport, had halted evacuation flights because of the chaos.

Editor's note: Keith Lamb is a University of Oxford graduate with an MSc degree in Contemporary Chinese Studies. His primary research interests are international relations of China and China's "socialism with Chinese characteristics." The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Afghanistan has been an exercise in gaslighting Western citizens from start to finish. We were told that we went there to capture Osama bin Laden and to save the poor Afghans from themselves. However, beyond the propaganda lies the reality that the Western invasion was a shameful neo-colonial venture.

Just like many colonial ventures that came before Afghanistan, while the rhetoric was lofty, the people suffered all the same and the end of colonialism proved chaotic. As such, it is no surprise that the Taliban are now in charge of Afghanistan.

The people hardly saw palpable improvements in their lives under the U.S. imposed "democracy." Consequently, it serves as another example of the failure of the West to impose their (dis)order upon civilizations with different histories.

I say a failure because Afghanistan is in ruins and the Western taxpayer, who paid for the war with the blood of their sons and taxes, is none the better. However, for the transatlantic liberal ruling elite, in the West, it has been, just like their old-colonial ventures, profitable.

Using conservative estimates, the U.S. has spent $2.261 trillion and the UK $30 billion invading Afghanistan. This has provided a windfall for the racket of war. For example, occupying Afghanistan in 2019 cost $52 billion while its entire GDP was a paltry $20.68 billion ($531 per capita), according to the International Monetary Fund.

Weapons sales and the provision of other services to the war front, which has been rapidly privatized, have led to large enterprises making an absolute killing. The likes of Halliburton, who former Vice President Dick Cheney once served as chairman, have profited hand over fist. The same goes for Blackwater which had a revolving door between the Republican Party and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Yes, there have been deaths, 241,000 to be precise. However, only 2,442 were U.S. military personnel and they were not from the draft-dodging class of Bush Junior. In return for this "collateral damage," there has been an unbroken 20 years of war profits for the liberal transatlantic elites.

Then those who control opium production, and the illicit profits that can be used to fund clandestine groups, such as terrorists, have also been winners. The Taliban had previously eradicated opium production; but under Western rule, Afghanistan turned into a narco-state with two-thirds of global opium production being cultivated within its borders. This has led to unprecedented rates of addiction amongst the suffering Afghan people.

Bizarrely, we have seen British and U.S. troops guarding the opium crop. Public Intelligence reported that in November 2009, the then Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics General Khodaidad stated that the majority of drugs were stockpiled in two provinces controlled by NATO forces, who were earning money from drug production in Afghanistan.

Thus, those who supported, and believed, the liberal elites' lies should reflect upon the fact that all hard power, all colonial acts were always justified through soft power. The white man's civilizing burden of old colonialism has today been replaced by human rights propaganda.

Afghanistan has, in fact, been a process in gaslighting from start to finish. How could it have been anything else? Who would support 20 years of war so that a small elite could be successful in accumulating billions from the racket?

Some believe we went in to fight terrorism but the Taliban were always willing to hand over Osama bin Laden, providing evidence was given. Then, even the 9/11 event, that sparked the war, has multiple inconsistencies.

For example, there are thousands of "Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth" who claim a controlled demolition occurred on that eventful day. As such, even if there is not inside malicious intent, there has been a willful ignoring of scientific evidence. This is because the 9/11 event has been a great investment for the transatlantic liberal ruling class. It has provided a 20-year dividend for the heroin trade and for those who manufacture weapons of mass destruction.

Incredulously, the call now goes up that Afghanistan was a "mistake" made by our Western democracies. This is always the exit door for elite liberal class interests. First carry out the atrocity; second profit from it; thirdly, when all is left in ruins, propagandize it as a collective democratic mistake without any analysis of how democracy is hijacked by the few.

Tragically, this "mistake" is not one that our elites or citizens of the West have learned from. Western democracies remain in a slumber as they are drip-fed new lies that will see them supporting yet more colonial ventures.

Today, China committing "genocide" and "slavery" in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region are the new lies of our time. These lies could lead to another huge windfall for the above-mentioned class, should they get their new cold war.

We cannot afford the costs of war. We must wake up, for clearly, our elites have never had a problem sending our best to die for their colonial profits. When all is said and done, the simple facts, on the ground, are that Afghanistan, which borders Xinjiang, represents the boundary between the forces of destruction and the forces of construction. To deny otherwise requires a mountain of propaganda.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)

South Korea has evacuated all its nationals from Afghanistan as its last-remaining citizens in Afghanistan, including the country's ambassador, have left the country, Yonhap reported citing the country's foreign ministry.

A plane carrying the four - three diplomats and one civilian - departed from the Kabul airport on Tuesday morning and is expected to land in a third country in the Middle East, the ministry said.

At least 10 people were killed while several were injured as U.S. forces attempted to secure the evacuations of their respective citizens and Afghan local staff, Afghanistan media TOLOnews said Monday.

People entered the airport on Sunday despite the presence of U.S. forces. Shots were fired and a stampede ensued, both of which caused fatalities.

AFP, quoting the U.S. Pentagon, reported that U.S. forces killed two armed people. Two other people were killed after they fell from a U.S. military airplane in flight after takeoff.

The Security Council on Monday called for an immediate cessation of all hostilities in Afghanistan and the establishment of a new government that is united, inclusive and representative, including the full, equal and meaningful participation of women.

Institutional continuity and adherence to Afghanistan's international obligations, as well as the safety and security of all Afghan and international citizens, must be ensured, said the members of the Security Council in a press statement.

Islamic Party leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said he is heading to Doha on Tuesday to meet with the Taliban delegation, accompanied by former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and head of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah, Al Jazeera reported on Monday.

With Afghan President Ashraf Ghani having fled the country, Karzai announced on social media that he had joined a "coordination council" with Abdullah and Hekmatyar to negotiate with the Taliban.

"We are trying to solve the issue of Afghanistan with the Taliban leadership peacefully," Karzai said.

The Taliban said discussions about a future government, including its structure and name, are underway in Doha, and they will disclose the process in the very near future, reported Afghan media TOLOnews.

A high-ranking official of the Taliban reportedly told TOLOnews that their leadership is busy in discussions in Doha and in contact with the international community and political parties within Afghanistan.

(With input from Reuters)

Germany must urgently evacuate up to 10,000 people from Afghanistan for whom its has responsibility, Chancellor Angela Merkel told party colleagues, warning that the fallout from the conflict will last for a very long time.

"We are witnessing difficult times," Merkel told a closed-door meeting of her Christian Democrat party on Monday. "Now we must focus on the rescue mission."

The German leader said those needing evacuation included 2,500 Afghan support staff as well as human rights activists, lawyers and others whom the government sees as being at risk if they remained in the country, up to 10,000 altogether.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany was seeking to evacuate as many people at risk as it could, adding that NATO allies had misjudged the situation when they thought Afghan government forces could hold back the Taliban unaided.

"We want to get as many people out of the country as quickly as possible," Maas told reporters outside the foreign ministry.

(With input from Reuters)

The Taliban takeover in Kabul is a "failure of the international community," Britain's Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Monday, as London called for a G7 leaders' meeting on Afghanistan. 

The UK defense minister said the West's job in Afghanistan was only half-done. "If it's a failure, it's a failure of the international community to not realize that you don't fix things overnight," he said. 

"All of us know that Afghanistan is not finished. It's an unfinished problem for the world and the world needs to help it," he told BBC television. 

In wake of Taliban's regain of power, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also urged G7 leaders to discuss the situation in the South Asian nation and to prevent humanitarian fallout.

Downing Street said on Monday that Johnson "outlined his intention to host a virtual meeting... in the coming days," during a call to French President Emmanuel Macron, when he stressed the need for a "unified approach." 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said that Afghanistan should not become again the "sanctuary of terrorism" that it was until the U.S.-led invasion two decades ago, after the Taliban regained control of the country.  

"It is a challenge for peace and international stability, against a common enemy. We will do everything we can so that Russia, the United States and Europe can cooperate efficiently, because our interests are the same," Macron said in a televised address from his summer residence. 

He also said the European Union would set up an initiative to thwart the large migrant flows now expected from the country, cracking down on illegal people smuggling rings that risk emerging.

(With input from AFP and Reuters)

Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday called the international community to help the displaced Afghans as a result of the current situation in Afghanistan. It also welcomed the establishment of a coordination council to ensure a "peaceful transfer of power."

"We hope the international community and the responsible bodies will pay serious attention to this issue, and especially in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, will hasten to their inherent duties to help these displaced persons without delay," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted by the ministry's website as saying in response to questions from reporters.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday defended the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan by saying U.S. troops could not defend a nation whose leaders "gave up and fled."

"We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future," Biden said, adding he could no longer ask U.S. soldiers to risk their lives in the country, 20 years on. "Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building." 

In his address at the White House – his first public appearance since Taliban took control of the country during the weekend – he admitted the Taliban advance had unfolded more quickly than expected. 

In just over a week, the Taliban, which the U.S. overthrew in 2001, went from winning control of their first provincial capital to taking over all the major cities including capital Kabul. 

Saying he was willing to take criticism over the decision on troops withdrawal, Biden also blamed top Afghan leaders, Afghan forces and his predecessor Donald Trump for the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan. 

"We have to be honest, our mission in Afghanistan is taking many missteps – made many missteps over the past two decades... I know my decision will be criticized, but I would rather take all that criticism than pass this decision on to another president... yet another one, a fifth one," he said.

Trump, who inked a deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. forces by this past May, also bears part of the responsibility for the current situation, said Biden. 

"The choice I had to make as your president was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season," Biden said. "There would be no ceasefire after May 1." 

Biden said the U.S. mission in Afghanistan to defeat the September 11 attackers and ensure al-Qaida could not use Afghanistan as a base to hit the United States had been completed. 

"I made a commitment to the American people when I ran for president that I would bring America's military involvement in Afghanistan to an end. While it's been hard and messy and, yes, far from perfect," he said. 

Biden said the United States will evacuate from Afghanistan thousands of American citizens who have been living and working in the country, warning the Taliban of "swift and forceful" response if these efforts come under attack. 

The United States would expand refugee access to include other vulnerable Afghans not already covered by special immigrant visas, volunteers for nongovernmental organizations and personnel from U.S. news agencies, he said.

(With input from agencies)

As the Taliban take charge over Afghanistan and U.S. troops and missions hastily pulling out, crowds of Afghans are fleeing across the nation’s borders and attempting to catch flights out of the country. 

U.S. President Biden promised to send another 5,000 troops to Afghanistan, but few have arrived. Taliban forces have taken over Kabul and the presidential palace, as well as other key cities around the country. 

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Many in Afghanistan and around the world are anxiously waiting for what The Taliban will do next in Afghanistan. 

Refugees outside their home country are mourning the Taliban takeover, as many of those who remain in Afghanistan question what their futures will look like.

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Yue Xiaoyong, the special envoy for Afghan affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry visited Iran on Monday and exchanged views on developments in Afghanistan with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

In an exclusive interview, Yue Xiaoyong told CGTN that China respects Afghan sovereignty and territorial integrity and independence and China respects the Afghan people’s will and choice.

“Afghan people have made a choice and we respect their choice. We also in this process, we hope Afghan political forces, including Taliban, will fulfill their promises,” Yue said.

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Chaos erupted Monday at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, where thousands of desperate Afghans are gathering after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.  

Men clung to the sides of a departing U.S. Air Force jet, and three are reported to have fallen to their deaths as the plane took off.

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to exchange views about developments in Afghanistan on Monday, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Wang told his counterpart that the United States should play a constructive role in helping Afghanistan to stabilize, prevent chaos and rebuild peace, the ministry said. 

"The sudden withdrawal of forces by the United States has already caused a serious negative impact on the situation in Afghanistan. If the next step is to create new problems, it is not a responsible attitude," he said.

Wang affirmed that China is willing to communicate and have dialogue with the U.S. on the situation in the landlocked country so that it will not face a new war or humanitarian disaster.

China hopes all kinds of terrorism and crimes can be curbed so that the Afghan people can stay away from war and rebuild their homeland, he said.

Wang noted that China and the United States are both permanent members of the UN Security Council and important participants in the contemporary international system. 

"China and the United States should work together on global challenges as the international community expects. The U.S. should stop the political oppression and senseless restrictions against China," he said.

There exists ideological, social system, historical and cultural differences between China and the U.S., and neither side can remodel the other, Wang said, adding that the only right way for the two countries is to seek peaceful coexistence on the planet on the basis of mutual respect.

During the conversation, Blinken expressed appreciation for China's participation in the Doha meeting on the Afghan issue, noting that the current situation in Afghanistan is entering a crucial stage, according to the ministry statement.

The Taliban should announce a clean break with extremism, opt for an orderly transfer of power and establish an inclusive government, the top U.S. diplomat said, expressing hope that China will also play an important role to this end. 

The United States recognizes that the future of Afghanistan should be decided by the Afghan people, Blinken said, calling on the Taliban to ensure the safety of all those who wish to leave the country.

Speaking of bilateral ties, Blinken said that it is very important for the United States and China to maintain communication on major international and regional issues. He agreed that achieving peaceful coexistence between the United States and China is a common goal, voicing hope that both sides will seek and carry out cooperation. 

Blinken acknowledged that there are also obvious differences between the two sides, but said they can be gradually resolved in a constructive way in the days to come.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also discussed the current situation in Afghanistan with Blinken in a telephone conversation Monday.

Lavrov informed Blinken of working contacts that have been established by the Russian embassy in the Afghan capital with the new authorities and main political forces in the country, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Blinken discussed work that was being carried out in relation to the evacuation of staff working at the U.S. embassy in Kabul as well as urgent humanitarian assistance.

Both sides agreed to continue close consultations with the participation of representatives from China, Pakistan, other interested countries, and the United Nations, which would be aimed at promoting an "inclusive inter-Afghan dialogue," the ministry said.

(With input from Xinhua)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday the United States' "military failure" in Afghanistan offered an opportunity to establish lasting peace in the country.

Taliban insurgents took control of the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday following a rout of the U.S.-backed Afghan army as foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan.

Washington has accused Iran in the past of providing covert aid to Taliban fighters against U.S. forces. Tehran, which supports an inclusive Afghan government that would include all ethnic groups and sects, has denied this.

"America's military defeat and its withdrawal must become an opportunity to restore life, security and durable peace in Afghanistan," Iran's state TV quoted Raisi as saying.

"Iran backs efforts to restore stability in Afghanistan and, as a neighbouring and brother nation, Iran invites all groups in Afghanistan to reach a national agreement."

Oil-producing Iran, a destination for Afghans seeking work or fleeing war, said on Sunday it had prepared accommodation in three provinces to provide temporary refuge to Afghans fleeing their country.

But with its economy stifled by U.S. sanctions, Iran has encouraged many of the more than 2 million undocumented and over 800,000 registered Afghan refugees in the Islamic Republic to return home.

(With input from agencies)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the world to work together to "suppress the global terrorist threat in Afghanistan" after the Taliban took control of the war-torn country.

"The international community must unite to make sure that Afghanistan is never again used as a platform or safe haven for terrorist organizations," Guterres told an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan.

The meeting was hastily convened at the UN's headquarters in New York after Taliban militants entered the capital Kabul on Sunday, leading Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to flee abroad.

"I appeal to the Security Council and the international community as a whole to stand together, to work together and act together," Guterres added.

He urged nations to "use all tools at its disposal to suppress the global terrorist threat in Afghanistan and to guarantee that basic human rights will be respected."

Guterres' comments came as Taliban fighters patrolled Kabul after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war.

Guterres said Afghans "deserve our full support."

"The following days will be pivotal," he said. "The world is watching. We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan."

The secretary-general urged the international community to "speak with one voice to uphold human rights in Afghanistan."

He said it was "essential that the hard-won rights of Afghan women and girls are protected."

Guterres also called upon the Taliban "to respect and protect international humanitarian law and the rights and freedoms of all persons."

(With input from agencies)

The United States has reached an agreement with the Taliban to ensure that evacuations from Kabul's airport can take place without interference from the group, according to a report by The Associated Press.

The deal was reached in talks in Doha, Qatar, between senior Taliban officials and Gen. Frank McKenzie.

The two sides apparently agreed to a "deconfliction mechanism" in which operations at the airport in Kabul are permitted to continue without interference from the Taliban.

McKenzie reportedly told the Taliban that any interference would be met with force from the U.S. military who would move to defend the airport if necessary.

At least seven people are believed to have died at the Kabul airport since the Afghan government fell and hundreds of Afghans rushed to evacuate the country.

The American flag at the U.S. Embassy has been taken down and all U.S. personnel have reportedly been evacuated to the airport.

Video from the airport showed desperate Afghans running alongside and clinging to planes as they took off. 

The U.S. military temporarily suspended operations at the Kabul airport due to Afghans rushing onto the airfield. Around 3,500 U.S. Embassy personnel are still waiting to be evacuated at the airport, CNN reports.

"Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals," the Department of Defense and the Department of State said in a joint statement.

"And we will accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans eligible for U.S. Special Immigrant Visas, nearly 2,000 of whom have already arrived in the United States over the past two weeks."

(With input from agencies)

Chinese envoy to the United Nations Geng Shuang on Monday warned Afghanistan against becoming a haven for terrorists again and urged the new Taliban rulers to live up to their commitments.

"We hope that the Taliban in Afghanistan will earnestly deliver on their commitments and make a clean break with terrorist organizations," Geng, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said at an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan.

In the last 20 years, terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic State, al-Qaida and the East Turkestan Independence Movement (ETIM), have gathered and developed in Afghanistan, posing a serious threat to international and regional peace and security, he said.

"Afghanistan must never again become heaven for terrorists. This is the bottom line that must be held firmly for any future political solution in Afghanistan," he said.

"The situation in Afghanistan has undergone major changes. China respects the will and choice of the Afghan people. The war in Afghanistan has lasted more than 40 years. To stop the war and realize peace is the shared aspiration of the Afghan people and the common expectation of the international community and countries in the region." 

Read more:

UN chief urges restraint from all parties on Afghanistan situation

Geng said the pressing task at the moment is to promptly restore peace, stability and order to avoid casualties and large-scale refugee flows.

In addition, the envoy termed the rights and interests of diplomatic missions and personnel in Afghanistan as inviolable, saying the safety, security and interests of foreign nationals in Afghanistan must be respected and guaranteed. 

"All parties in Afghanistan have the responsibility to protect people's lives and property. They should provide assurance for the safe residence and orderly evacuation of foreign nationals," Geng said.

"China has always maintained that a political solution is the only way out for Afghanistan. At present, Afghanistan's national prospects are at a historic crossroads. China has noted the Taliban's statement on Sunday that the war in Afghanistan was over and that they would hold talks aimed at forming an open, inclusive Islamic government in Afghanistan and take responsible actions to protect the safety of Afghan citizens and foreign diplomatic missions.  

"China hopes these commitments can be honored so as to ensure a smooth transition of the situation in Afghanistan, keep at bay all kinds of terrorism and criminal acts, and make sure that the Afghan people stay away from war and can rebuild their homeland."  

Geng said that China hopes the Taliban can unite with all factions and ethnic groups in Afghanistan and build a broad-based and inclusive political structure suited to the national conditions of Afghanistan and lay the foundation for achieving enduring peace.

(With input from Xinhua)

The chaos at the Kabul airport Monday morning left seven people dead, including some who fell from a departing American military transport jet, the AP reported citing senior U.S. military officials. 

Local media earlier reported, citing eyewitnesses that hundreds of people tried to enter planes leaving Kabul forcibly.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged all parties to practice utmost restraint and protect civilians in Afghanistan.

Guterres made the remarks at the opening of an emergency meeting on Afghanistan held by the UN Security Council, a day after the Taliban captured the country's capital Kabul.

Guterres raised deep concerns over human rights issues as hundreds of thousands civilians fled their homes due to the rapidly evolving situation in Afghanistan.

He called on all parties, the Taliban in particular, to protect civilians, and provide necessary humanitarian assistance. The secretary-general also encouraged countries to receive refugees to avoid a humanitarian crisis.

Amid the situation, Guterres raised two proposals on behalf of the UN.

Firstly, in relation to Afghani women and children, Guterres urged all parties to speak in one voice on human rights in Afghanistan and to ensure the basic human rights of vulnerable groups are respected.

Secondly, he stressed that Afghanistan should not become a platform for terrorism.

Reiterating the UN's commitment to supporting Afghanistan, the Guterres urged all relevant parties in Afghanistan to end violence, ensure protection of human life and property, and commit to all the international treaties signed by the country.

The European Union has called an emergency meeting of its foreign ministers after the Taliban announced it had seized control of Afghanistan, claiming it had occupied all government buildings in the capital Kabul.

European nations are among those attempting to evacuate diplomats and others, but thousands of Afghans have flooded into Hamid Karzai International Airport hoping to find a way out, too, and the chaos has forced all planes to be grounded until the airfield can be cleared. 

EU foreign ministers will hold emergency talks during a video conference on Tuesday as foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted: "Afghanistan stands at a crossroads. Security and wellbeing of its citizens, as well as international security, are at play."

Diplomats for the bloc have told AFP that there are up to 600 Afghan workers and their families at the EU mission in Kabul and are pleading with member nations to grant them visas.

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Germany

After initially relying on U.S.-led evacuation flights, Germany has sent two military aircraft to Kabul's airport to aid the evacuation of German and European citizens.

Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the crisis Monday evening and said she was working closely with France's President Emmanuel Macron to coordinate the two nations' responses.

Officials say they are intent on evacuating support staff as well as diplomatic personnel. Figures given by the Chancellory suggested at least 1,500 local staff are now in Germany and hundreds of others are in third countries while their paperwork is being processed.

A special session of parliament will be held on Wednesday to adopt policies to address the crisis. Earlier in the day, Chancellor Merkel suggested the U.S. was partly to blame for the situation because of decisions based on "domestic political reasons," which forced Nato members to also withdraw from Afghanistan. The decision was "ultimately made by the Americans," she reportedly told colleagues.

"We have always said, if the Americans stay, we will also stay," she said, according to participants at the meeting. "For the many who have built on the progress and freedom – especially women – these are bitter events," Merkel added. 

Russia

Russia's embassy in Afghanistan said 100 staff would be evacuated "in order not to create too big a presence" but Russia would maintain a diplomatic presence in the country. 

Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov will meet the Taliban on Tuesday to discuss diplomatic relations. It has been reported the Taliban has built a protective perimeter around the Russian embassy in Kabul already.

The embassy confirmed the extremely fast takeover of the country was "somewhat unexpected." Zamir Kabulov, a foreign ministry official, said: "Afghan forces dropped everything at the first shot."

The UK

UK troops have arrived in Kabul to help evacuations. Approximately 600 soldiers are in Kabul airport, hoping to get Britons and Afghans who worked with the UK since 2001 to safety. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has recalled parliament from its summer recess and on Wednesday it will discuss the situation. 

UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace broke down during a broadcast interview on Monday, as the former army officer admitted "some won't get back" to the UK. He went on to say that sending British forces back to Afghanistan on a long-term basis was "not on the cards."

His emotional reaction was shared by parents of soldiers killed in the 20-year conflict. 

"Whether people's lives were lost through a war that wasn't winnable, I think they were," said Graham Knight, father of 25-year-old Sergeant Ben Knight who was killed when his aircraft exploded in Afghanistan in 2006, told the PA news agency in the UK. 

France

France's President Emmanuel Macron has convened his security council and is expected to make a televised address to the French people on Monday evening. 

In Kabul, the French embassy has been moved to the airport, but the current state of French evacuations is not known. France's ambassador was pictured escaping the capital in a military helicopter on Monday. 

France has been warning its citizens of the Taliban's dangerous approach since April and organized flights out as early as July. 

In France, the government reversed a decision to continue deporting Afghan asylum-seekers. 

Italy

Italy decided to urgently evacuate its diplomats and nationals as well as its Afghan employees, after sending a military aircraft to Kabul on Sunday.

"Faced with the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini asked diplomatic staff to begin emergency evacuation of the embassy in Kabul and Italian nationals," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"At the same time, he decided to speed up the transfer to Italy of Afghan collaborators," it said.

At least 70 have been repatriated and their plane is due to land in Rome on Monday. Italy had one of the largest contingents of European nationals in Afghanistan in recent years, 723 soldiers were wounded and 53 lost their lives during the conflict. 

Finland

Finland said it would close its embassy in Kabul immediately and until further notice as a result of the security situation. "Diplomatic personnel are being evacuated from the country," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Czechia

The first Czech evacuation flight has returned to Prague. Prime Minister Andrej Babis said 46 people were onboard Monday's flight, including Czech nationals, the Afghan staff at the Czech embassy and Afghan interpreters who helped the Czech armed forces during Nato missions. 

The search for visas

Some nations have agreed to extended the number of visas available for Afghans who worked with the Nato alliance.  Poland's government in Warsaw has issued 45 humanitarian visas and the Republic of Ireland has granted visa waivers for the same number. Ireland said a further 150 refugees would be accepted. 

"We'll prioritize people working with human rights organizations, with the media there, women and girls in particular," Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said. 

China calls on Taliban to bring 'enduring peace' to Afghanistan

China has maintained diplomatic links with the Taliban since the U.S. announced its plans to withdraw troops by the end of August and in the wake of events over the weekend, the Foreign Ministry reiterated hopes for continued "friendly and cooperative" relations with Afghanistan.

A statement read out by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Monday confirmed the embassy was "operating as normal," although most Chinese nationals have returned to China with only a handful staying on voluntarily. The embassy told those remaining to "pay close attention to the security situation" and stay indoors.

China's ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu said: "The current chaos in Afghanistan is the result of the failure of the U.S. policy towards Afghanistan and the consequence of the U.S.'s irresponsible withdrawal of its troops. 

"The Chinese embassy will continue to pay close attention to the development of the situation, respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and will not interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs." 

Wang went on to urge the Taliban to ensure the "peaceful development" of the political infrastructure is a top priority and that it should be inclusive and in line with international expectations.

Video editor: Pedro Duarte

The situation in Kabul city is coming under "full control," Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted on Monday.

According to Mujahid, the Taliban have also arrested most of the people involved in violence in the capital.

"No one is allowed to go to the houses of the former officials, ask for their vehicles or threaten them," he tweeted. "Those people would be prevented from doing these with all seriousness and will seriously be pursued."

Uzbek air force shot down an Afghan military jet as it tried to violate the country's border, Uzbekistan's defense ministry told Russia's RIA news agency on Monday.

The aircraft was shot down on Sunday after crossing into Uzbekistan's southern province of Surkhondaryo, bordering Afghanistan. Two pilots ejected and survived, the Uzbek defense ministry was quoted as saying.

"The military plane illegally crossed the border of Uzbekistan. An investigation is underway," ministry spokesman Bakhrom Zulfikarov told reporters earlier, confirming Uzbek media reports.

Zulfikarov said the ministry would prepare a statement on the crash.

Bekpulat Okboyev, a doctor in Surkhondaryo province, told AFP his hospital had taken in two patients who arrived in Afghan military uniforms on Sunday evening.

The doctor described one of the patients came "with a parachute" and noted that the man had suffered fractures.

Central Asia has watched with alarm as Afghanistan's government has collapsed. On Sunday, Uzbekistan said 84 Afghan soldiers had been detained for illegally crossing the border. It was also negotiating with the Afghans over the soldiers' return.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

EU foreign ministers will hold crisis talks via video link on Tuesday on the situation in Afghanistan as European nations continue to evacuate personnel from the country, Josep Borrell, the bloc's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said on Monday.  

"Afghanistan stands at a crossroad. Security and wellbeing of its citizens, as well as international security are at play," Borrell tweeted. 

Casualties were reported as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving Kabul on Monday, local media said citing eyewitnesses.

Shooting was also reported at the airport, according to news outlets.

Citing witnesses, Reuters reported that five people were killed. 

It was not immediately clear how the victims died, Reuters added. 

Russia will evacuate some of its Afghanistan embassy's roughly 100 staff, Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Monday.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday said the situation in Afghanistan has changed and China respects the Afghan people's will and choice.

Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the ministry, commented on the latest situation in Afghanistan, saying that China hopes that statements made by the Taliban can be implemented to ensure a smooth transition.

The Taliban said on Sunday evening that there is no danger to embassies, diplomatic missions and foreign nationals in Kabul, pledging that they will maintain security across the country and will announce the establishment of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" soon, according to media reports. 

The war in Afghanistan has lasted for over 40 years, Hua said, stressing that stopping the war and realizing peace is the shared aspiration of the over 30 million Afghan people and the common aspiration of the international community and countries in the region.

We hope all kinds of terrorism and crimes can be curbed so that the Afghan people can stay away from war and rebuild their homeland, Hua added.

When answering a reporter's question about whether China will recognize a Taliban government, the spokesperson said China expects that an inclusive political arrangement that is acceptable to all Afghan people will lay the foundation for lasting peace in the country.

"Based on fully respecting the national sovereignty of Afghanistan and the will of various factions in the country, China has maintained contact and communication with the Afghan Taliban and played a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Afghan issue," she said.

China welcomes the Taliban's promise that they will allow no force to use the Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China and its expression of hope that China will be more involved in Afghanistan's peace and reconciliation process and play a bigger role in future reconstruction and economic development, Hua said.

China will continue developing good-neighborly, friendly and cooperative relations with Afghanistan, she added, stressing the importance of adhering to non-interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs and pursuing a friendly policy toward the entire Afghan people.

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Afghanistan is operating normally and China will closely monitor the situation and provide Chinese nationals in Afghanistan with necessary services and help, according to Hua.

All commercial flights out of the international airport in Kabul have been cancelled, the airport said in a statement on Monday. 

Taliban officials said on Monday they had received no reports of any clashes from across the country a day after the group took control of capital Kabul.

"The situation is peaceful, as per our reports," a senior member of the Taliban said. 

"The general public is happy with the arrival of the Mujahideen and satisfied with the security," Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid tweeted on Monday. 

The U.S. forces will take over air traffic control at Kabul airport, in addition to expanding security there, the U.S.  Departments of State and Defense said in a joint statement Sunday.

"Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals," said the statement.

One of the Taliban's most senior officials on Sunday declared that the movement's swift victory over the Afghan government was an unrivaled feat but the real test of governing effectively would begin now that it had won power.

In a brief video statement, Abdul Ghani Baradar, the head of the Taliban's political bureau, said the victory, which saw all of the country's major cities fall in a week, was unexpectedly swift and had no match in the world.

However, he said the real test would begin now with meeting the expectations of the people and serving them by resolving their problems. 

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Live updates: Taliban enter Kabul as Ghani leaves Afghanistan

Special coverage: Afghan tension in process

The Taliban returned to power in Kabul on Monday after a military advance across Afghanistan as U.S-led forces departed and Western nations stepped up efforts to evacuate their embassy staffs and other citizens from the capital. 

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as Taliban fighters closed in on the capital, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed. 

A Taliban spokesman said the war is over and the Afghan people will soon learn what form the new government will take. 

Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Qatar's capital Doha, stressed on Sunday evening that there is no danger to embassies, diplomatic missions and foreign nationals in Kabul, pledging that the Taliban will maintain security across the country. 
  
"We assure all embassies, diplomatic missions, institutions and residences of foreign nationals in Kabul that there is no danger to them," Naeem said on his Twitter account. 
  
He stressed that the forces of the Taliban movement are tasked with maintaining security in Kabul and other cities in the country. 
  
The Taliban on Sunday announced taking control of the presidential palace in Kabul, and will announce the establishment of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" soon, according to media reports. 

Naeem told Al Jazeera TV that the war was over in Afghanistan and called for peaceful relations with the international community. 

The Taliban did not want to live in isolation and the type of rule and the form of government would be clear soon, he said. The group respected women's and minorities' rights and freedom of expression within the Sharia law, he added. 

The Taliban were seeing the fruits of their efforts and sacrifices for 20 years, he said, and would adopt a policy of non-interference in others' affairs in return for non-interference in Afghanistan. 

"We have reached what we were seeking, which is the freedom of our country and the independence of our people," he said. "We will not allow anyone to use our lands to target anyone, and we do not want to harm others." 

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Chart of the Day: U.S. changing Afghanistan policy

President Ghani said Sunday after fleeing Afghanistan that the Taliban have won. He left Kabul as Taliban fighters closed in and entered the capital, sealing a nationwide military victory in just 10 days. 

"The Taliban have won with the judgement of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honor, property and self-preservation of their countrymen," Ghani said in a statement posted to Facebook, his first since fleeing.  

"They are now facing a new historical test. Either they will preserve the name and honor of Afghanistan or they will give priority to other places and networks," he added, saying he left to prevent a "flood of bloodshed."  

Ghani did not say where he had traveled to, but leading Afghan media group Tolo news suggested he had gone to Tajikistan. 

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America's many failures in Afghanistan

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U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday authorized the deployment of another 1,000 American troops to Kabul to aid the ongoing effort to evacuate thousands of U.S. and Afghan civilians, a Pentagon official said.  

In all, 6,000 U.S. soldiers will be in Kabul "in the coming days," the official said on condition of anonymity, as those seeking safe passage out of Afghanistan converged on the airport.

The United States lowered the flag on its embassy in Kabul and has relocated all staff to the airport, where U.S. forces are taking over air traffic control, officials said Sunday.  

"We are completing a series of steps to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport to enable the safe departure of U.S. and allied personnel from Afghanistan via civilian and military flights," the Pentagon and State Department said in a joint statement.  

The State Department said late Sunday that all American embassy personnel in Kabul had been safely evacuated and were at the airport. 

State Department spokesman Ned Price in a statement added that the airport's "perimeter is secured by the U.S. military." 

"The American flag has been lowered from the U.S. embassy compound and is now securely located with embassy staff," the spokesperson said earlier.  

The shuttering of the U.S. embassy comes nearly 20 years after U.S. forces toppled the Taliban-led government in late 2001. 

China's special envoy for Afghan affairs, Yue Xiaoyong, said on Friday that the U.S. bears an "inescapable responsibility" for the escalated conflict in Afghanistan, criticizing the "hasty and irresponsible" withdrawal of U.S. troops. 

Yue said the current situation in Afghanistan is a military, political and reputational "fiasco" for the United States. 

The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Afghanistan at 2 p.m. GMT on Monday. 

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 15, 2021. /CFP)

Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Qatar's capital Doha, stressed on Sunday evening that there is no danger to embassies, diplomatic missions and foreign nationals in the Afghan capital Kabul, pledging that the Taliban will maintain security across the country.

"We assure all embassies, diplomatic missions, institutions and residences of foreign nationals in Kabul that there is no danger to them," Naeem said on his Twitter account.

He stressed that the forces of the Taliban movement are tasked with maintaining security in Kabul and other cities in the country.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Sunday that he is deeply concerned with the “rapidly evolving situation in Afghanistan”.

Guterres urges “the Taliban and all other parties to exercise utmost restraint in order to protect lives and ensure that humanitarian needs can be addressed”.

There has been a massive exodus of Afghan civilians from the city of Kabul. “There continue to be reports of serious human rights abuses and violations in the communities most affected by the fighting,” the statement said.

The need for protection of women and girls was highlighted in the statement, which called on the Taliban to, “ensure that international humanitarian law and the rights and freedoms of all people are respected and protected”.

The Taliban says it will ensure the safety of all diplomats and citizens and is ready to deal with the concerns of the international community through dialogue.

The UN Secretary-General announced he will address the Security Council Monday on Afghanistan’s deteriorating situation.

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United Nations agencies pledge to remain in Afghanistan despite the challenges. The U.N Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says the U.N. has been in Afghanistan uninterrupted for 70 years and it has every intention to stay to help those who need it most.

There are about 300 U.N. staff members in Afghanistan. And, they have coordinated much of the humanitarian assistance provided by more than 150 U.N. and non-governmental agencies to eight million Afghans this year.

The Humanitarian Affairs Office says it will engage with anyone, including the Taliban, to serve those in need, and its role is based on the core principles of neutrality and impartiality.

The U.N. Refugee Agency is providing food, shelter, hygiene, and other aid to some 400,000 Afghans newly displace this year. The U.N.’s World Food Program is increasing food assistance to nine million acutely hungry Afghans this year.

An urgent meeting on developments in Afghanistan is being coordinated by the U.N. Security Council.

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The Taliban on Sunday entered the presidential palace in the Afghan capital Kabul, Reuters has reported citing two senior commanders from the group.

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has left the country, local TV channel Tolo News TV reported on Sunday. The report came as the Taliban ordered its members to enter Kabul.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, tweeted that as the Kabul police abandoned the district police stations, the Taliban will enter the city to provide security for the people and ensure law and order.
No government official was available to comment.

Top Afghan peace official Abdullah Abdullah described Ashraf Ghani as Afghanistan's former president in a video message on Sunday.  

He blamed Ghani for the current situation in Afghanistan, hours after Taliban entered the capital Kabul.

Two Taliban officials told Reuters on Sunday there would be no transitional government in Afghanistan and that the group expects a complete handover of power.

The Taliban's rapid gains and entry into Kabul have taken many by surprise. Afghan government forces should have had the upper hand in terms of service personnel and weaponry, but they collapsed in the face of a group who were better organized. Here's how their strength compared.

The Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan said on Sunday it has asked different Afghan parties to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and interests in the country.

In a statement, the embassy said there have been no reports of casualties of Chinese citizens in the country and urged its nationals to follow the security situation closely. 

The Taliban has ordered its fighters to enter the Afghan capital Kabul, a spokesman for the group said on Sunday.

The statement by Zabihullah Mujahid came shortly after reports saying President Ashraf Ghani had left the country.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has left the country, reported TOLO News on Sunday, hours after the Taliban surrounded the capital Kabul.

Reuters also reported that Ghani has "left for Tajikistan," citing a senior interior ministry official.

Asked for comment, the president's office said it "cannot say anything about Ashraf Ghani's movement for security reasons," according to Reuters.

A representative of the Taliban said the group was checking on Ghani's whereabouts.

Other reports have indicated that the president had agreed to resign.

According to Russian news agency RIA, Ghani has agreed to stand down. Earlier, Sputnik news agency reported that the president would step down in the "coming hours" amid a peaceful transfer of power. 

There has been no official confirmation so far.

The Taliban have claimed the full takeover of key Afghan cities, except Kabul. CGTN invited Wang Jin, associate professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Northwest University of China, and Pavel Felgenhauer, a defense analyst based in Moscow, to share their insights.

An Afghanistan government delegation, including senior official Abdullah Abdullah, will travel to Qatar on Sunday to meet with representatives of the Taliban, reported Reuters citing an Afghanistan negotiator. 

Fawzi Koofi, a member of the Kabul negotiating team, confirmed to Reuters the delegation would meet with the Taliban in the Gulf state. 

The agency also reported that the two sides would discuss a transition of power, adding that U.S. officials would also be involved.

The U.S. plans to completely pull all personnel from its embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, reported CNN. 

Germany's army is also sending A400M transport aircraft to Kabul to evacuate embassy staff and their Afghan helpers as Taliban fighters surround the Afghan capital, Bild am Sonntag reported.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urged government forces Sunday to maintain security in Kabul, after the Taliban paused their sweeping advance on the outskirts of the capital, causing widespread panic, AFP has reported.

"It is our responsibility and we will do it in the best possible manner. Anyone who thinks about chaos, plunder or looting will be tackled with force," he said in a video released to media, according to AFP.

A Taliban spokesperson said the group wants a peaceful transition of power in Afghanistan in the next few days, according to Reuters on Sunday. 

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was meeting with the Taliban in the presidential palace, a CMG reporter reported earlier.

Ali Ahmad Jalali, a U.S.-based academic and former Afghan interior minister, is likely to be named to head an interim administration in Kabul, reported Reuters citing three diplomatic sources on Sunday. 

It was not immediately clear whether the Taliban had given their final agreement to Jalali's appointment but he was seen as a potentially acceptable compromise figure to oversee the transition of power, the sources said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is meeting with the Taliban in Afghanistan's Presidential Palace on Sunday.

Afghan acting Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said Kabul would not be attacked and the "transition" will happen peacefully, TOLO News reported on Sunday. 

He also assured that security forces will ensure the security of the city.

The Taliban are in talks with the Afghan government in order to enter Kabul peacefully, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Sunday.

The Taliban have no plans to take the Afghan capital "by force," a spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday. 

Taliban fighters took Jalalabad, near a major border crossing with Pakistan, earlier on Sunday, leaving Kabul as the last major city under government control.

There are conflicting reports on the situation in the Afghan capital. 

Citing the Afghan Interior Ministry, Reuters reported that the Taliban have started entering Kabul "from all sides." 

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Taliban said that fighters were ordered Sunday to wait at the gates of Kabul and not enter the city, an insurgent spokesman said, after the complete collapse of the country's security forces. 

"Core" U.S. team members were working from Kabul airport, Reuters reported citing a U.S. official, while a NATO official said several EU staff had moved to a safer, undisclosed location in the capital.

The Taliban have gained control over Afghanistan's Jalalabad, the country's fifth largest city, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter on Sunday.

Afghanistan's fourth-largest city and the government's last northern stronghold fell to the Taliban on Saturday, according to report by several news outlets.

A report by Reuters quoted the head of the Balkh provincial council, Afzal Hadid, confirming that Mazar-i-Sharif had been captured adding that all security forces had left the major city.

"The Taliban have taken control of Mazar-i-Sharif," Hadid said, according to Reuters.

The rapidly destabilizing situation in Afghanistan led the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to announce that it would be deploying troops to the country's capital Kabul this weekend to help evacuate embassy staff.

At the same time, the first UK troops began deploying to Afghanistan to assist in the evacuation of UK nationals who remain in the country.

An estimated 600 troops are expected to participate in the operation, which will also help with the relocation of Afghans who face reprisals from the Taliban for their collaboration with Western forces.

The Taliban now holds more than half of the nation's 34 provincial capitals and controls more than two-thirds of the country with government resistance crumbling.

(With input from agencies)

Taliban militants captured Sharan city, the capital of eastern Paktika province on Saturday, the head of the provincial council Bakhtiar Gul Zadran said.

"Sharan fell to the Taliban this morning and at the moment all Paktika province is under Taliban control," Zadran told Xinhua.

All officials of the province have gone to a military base, the official said without providing more details.

A day earlier on Friday, the Taliban captured Logar province with Pul-e-Alam as provincial capital, 60 km south of Kabul.

A Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also confirmed that the Taliban is in control of Sharan city.

With the fall of Sharan city, the number of provincial capitals captured by the armed group has reached 19 in the country's 34 provinces.

Editor's note: Radhika Desai is a professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN. 

As President Joe Biden scrambles to get U.S. personnel out of Kabul before it falls to the Taliban, the media resound with Saigon analogies. In 1975, the U.S. had to conduct the largest helicopter evacuation to save its personnel from the advancing North Vietnamese. The analogy evokes Karl Marx's words,  "Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."

The U.S.'s Vietnam tragedy unfolded from the contradictions of a self-deluding, vainglorious and irresolute imperial state defeated by a proud people whose resolution it is quite unable to fathom and whose heroism it is unable to match. The humiliation of Vietnam has weighed on every U.S. president since. Ronald Reagan invaded Grenada and declared "Our days of weakness are over. Our military forces are back on their feet and standing tall." George H. W. Bush invaded Iraq, failed to overthrow Saddam Hussein and declared nevertheless that "The ghosts of Vietnam have been laid to rest beneath the sands of the Arabian desert." However, leaving aside the 800-pound-Gorilla-against-tiny mouse "victory" in Grenada, failure has been the usual outcome of U.S. military ventures and Afghanistan is the ultimate failure. 

The Taliban, whom the U.S. has been fighting since 2001, emerged out of the very Islamic fundamentalist mujahedeen that the U.S. recruited, trained and funded to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Ironically, the Soviet-supported government is likely to remain the most progressive in Afghan history for some time to come. As the Taliban overran Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew, the U.S. encouraged Pakistani support for them because it hoped that a Taliban government would agree to build pipelines to bring Central Asian oil to world markets.

That fell through and the U.S. claimed on September 11, 2001, that the events of that day were organized by Osama bin Laden who was hiding with the Taliban in Afghanistan and demanded the Taliban hand him over. The Taliban demanded proof of his involvement, the U.S. dismissed the demand (and much mystery still surrounds those events) and invaded.

However, though the U.S. could foist the pressure on Afghans, it could not stabilize the Karzai government and by about 2005, it was clear there would be no victory. The war has gone on nevertheless and the reasons are simple and frightening.

The U.S. does not fight wars for clear objectives. It routinely lies about its motivations for war. Everyone knows the hypocrisy of its claims about saving Afghan women (presumably from Afghan men) and promoting democracy. The fact is, for U.S. administrations, wars are like gift-filled Christmases for their giant military industrial complex. Producers of arms and military goods and services get a bonanza of contracts, as do contractors that provide related goods and services, including mercenaries, in the U.S. and in the war theater. Additionally, other U.S. corporations benefit from "reconstruction" contracts, opportunities for risk-free profit in occupied territory.

Therefore, though the cost and unpopularity of the wars mean that every president is elected on a promise to stop them, they fail to keep it. How can they in the face of the opposition of these powerful business lobbies? Inevitably, presidents succumb, all the more easily as congress exercises little or no oversight. 

The cost and unpopularity did force President Donald Trump at least to initiate talks with the very Taliban that lofty U.S. rhetoric had demonised for two decades. A U.S. withdrawal was agreed.

Biden continued this process and even brought forward U.S. withdrawal. However, he had not reckoned on two things. First, that the U.S.-supported Ghani government had become so unpopular that the Taliban could take over the country with astonishing speed once U.S. and other western troops withdrew. Secondly, that the U.S.-trained and equipped Afghan army would not only crumble before the Taliban, but also go over to its side in so many cases.

The U.S. leaves behind a destroyed country deeply divided by its occupation. The government is supports will likely fall soon and the fate of the Afghan people will depend on the very fundamentalist forces the U.S. created and then fought so fruitlessly. There is a tiny glimmer of hope that decades of guerilla actions requiring the support of ordinary Afghans has softened the edge of the Taliban's fundamentalism. However, we have to see it to believe it.

Finally, the Biden administration certainly intended to keep up the dishonorable U.S. tradition of never leaving entirely, always leaving at least "advisors," contractors and the CIA. Biden certainly wanted to, if only to make Afghanistan a staging post for U.S. attempts to destabilize China via Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. But, can he, if a deeply hostile Taliban takes over?

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